A fine evening to us all

[Midnight King]

Greatings fellow human beings.
( I am not pronouncing the P word after reading Donner's current signature ).

I was brought here by 'scattykat', reading the rules of this message board I agree to comply to every single one of them, but there is a little question I'm afraid I must ask.

I agree with 'the all caps rule', but I have certain poems that have a few words typed in 'all caps' inorder to emphasyze the word in a more persuasive way... is that not allowed too? is there any chance that an exception of somekind can be in place?

And now for a little bit about me...
I am an 18 year old male from Israel, writing poetry for about 3 years, I have recently started playing the guitar and I have come here with the purpose of catching up on English, Good Poetry and learning the art of Criticism, as I am not so rich with words...

I hope that in time I will learn to use what ever potential that I have in me, with your help.

Midnight King ( to do with wolves )

[Donner]

Since you evoked the "D" word, here I am.

It's my opinion that your word choices, not a gimmick such as all-caps, should do the work in a poem. Poetry is about communicating an experience to your reader and if you choose your words deliberately, then that's all the emphasis you should need.

An exception might be to use italics rather than all caps, especially for dialogue or to show a division between two speakers, but you should, as a rule, let the language speak for itself. So to speak. My opinion, take it for what it's worth.

Welcome to PFFA, by the way.

Donner

[Dani B]

hello and welcome!

people actually use the all caps here, despite admonitions...I don't think I've ever seen an all capitalized word in a poem that didn't serve to distract/confuse/destroy the tone of the poem. It works okay sometimes in prose, but poetry never really gets along with "shouty" text.

Good luck with your endeavors! There is much to learn here.

Dani B

[Midnight King]

Taking this member by member.

Donner : I thank you for the tip you gave me and I will try it when I come to posting that poem, thank you for the welcome.

Dani B, thank you for the welcome, although I must say I do not think that all caps ruins every poem...in my own opinion.

[Nanphi]

As for all caps: think of the poem as delivered orally, not of its appearance on the page. How would you emphasise the desired word, which is being heard, not seen? Contrive your text so that emphasis falls on the significant word as a result of rhythm and sonics and its position in the line. Capitalising word/s in a written text always strikes me as a cop-out--a signal that the writer lacks craft. As such, it's irritating. Try to avoid it.

Welcome to PFFA.
- Nanphi

[Midnight King]

So I will, thank you for the welcome!

[Harry R]

I guess my perspective on all-caps would be:

It might be possible to use them successfully, but they are at the very least extremely heavy-handed; that in itself is a reason to be very very cautious in using them.


welcome to PFFA

Harry

[Midnight King]

I gathered so after various explanation, glad to be here.