Centering poetry

[KillerMuffin]

Why? What's the thinking that prompts this type of formatting? Does it contribute to the theme or meaning of the poem? Does it do something for the line? I am curious why a poet would center over left justify because of the places that I usually see poetry centered (greeting cards) and the places I ususally see poetry left justified (books). When a poem deviates from the norm, I think that the poet did so for a specific reason, so that I might have a more enriched experience from the poem. But, sometimes I don't see that in the poem and I wonder why it happens.

 

[EroticOrogeny]

Sometimes is plays a vital role, such as in Corso's Happy Birthday of Death.
But most often, in my opinion, just the way that poet likes it to appear.
I generally prefer left justified as the focus is more on the words.
Has anyone seen right justified that they recall ?

 

[Tzara]

Why? What's the thinking that prompts this type of formatting? Does it contribute to the theme or meaning of the poem? Does it do something for the line? I am curious why a poet would center over left justify because of the places that I usually see poetry centered (greeting cards) and the places I ususally see poetry left justified (books). When a poem deviates from the norm, I think that the poet did so for a specific reason, so that I might have a more enriched experience from the poem. But, sometimes I don't see that in the poem and I wonder why it happens.

I generally dislike centered poetry, usually because I don't think the centered lines add anything to the poem (and, usually, detract from it).

But, there are exceptions, often, as in this case, for formatting reasons.

But, then, I'm not the kind of person who wants to center things. I'm basically leftist.

Meaning poetry, of course.

Of course.

Geez.

 

[Palba_Noruda]

Why? What's the thinking that prompts this type of formatting? Does it contribute to the theme or meaning of the poem? Does it do something for the line? I am curious why a poet would center over left justify because of the places that I usually see poetry centered (greeting cards) and the places I ususally see poetry left justified (books). When a poem deviates from the norm, I think that the poet did so for a specific reason, so that I might have a more enriched experience from the poem. But, sometimes I don't see that in the poem and I wonder why it happens.

My guess is that ever since people started writing poems down, there have been those who like the symmetry of centering. And then it's probably been a matter of style, genre, etc.

For some people, their earliest interactions with poetry may have been centered poetry:
-nursery rhymes I think are often centered on the page
-as is the Boy Scout Oath and Scout Law
-religious poems (prayers, hymns, etc) are often printed in the centered form
I guess sometimes nursery rhymes are centered on the page. Or some piece of art with poetry on it that hangs on the wall...
-Wall hangings
-Scrolls
-Asian poems/calligraphy

It's hard to say about other forms of poetry throughout history. William Blake was a fan of left justified back in the 18th Century.

As far as composition goes, it still is very popular to center subjects in a photograph or painting. My sofa is centered in its space against the wall.

Book covers will often have centered words and art. Chapter headers or section headers are often centered.

And then there are those offset quatrains, where the second and fourth lines are indented... Not really centered, but not really left aligned either.

EDIT: Prayers, in fact, are the first form of poetry I memorized. Or perhaps songs. Not the Boy Scout Oath and Creed. Though I did learn those and recited them often as an early teen.

 

[bflagsst]

It's sort of why center and why capitalize the first letter of each line? Just a preference to make it look a little nicer. I wrote a poem that looked like an hour glass when centered, I think it's more interesting that way to the reader, it was unintentional.

 

[butters]

i rarely use centering but when i do it's because i feel it adds to the overall feel of the piece. way too many are formatted like this, and it appears to have been used more as some form of affectation than as a tool to add to the experience of the reader. of course much, if not all, of this is subjective and so others may disagree with my opinion here; when it comes to 'shape' or 'concrete' poems, then centering might well realise the desired overall shape of the poem ... it has also to be said, here, that this sometimes comes about in a perfectly serendipitous fashion

here's one i wrote left-justified, and then again centered; i happen to prefer the centering here, others might not:

Now

is that time
between then
and then

a lush green strip suspended

between
white-brushed
aching blues

Now

is that time
between then
and then

a lush green strip suspended

between
white-brushed
aching blues​

maybe it'd be better as

Now

is that time
between then
and then

a

l
u
s
h

g
r
e
e
n

s
t
r
i
p

s
u
s
p
e
n
d
e
d

between
white-brushed
aching blues​

*grins*

 

[Angeline]

Shape poetry is writing with intent to center or otherwise shape as part of the poem. There isn't really any other reason to do it I can imagine except that the poet likes the way it looks. I have seen it work with varying degrees of success. I've seen publications in anthologies from the Beat period and late sixties-mid seventies that include those sorts of poems. If I didn't have most of my books packed for our move already, I could check a few places and name a few of them.

I remember I centered a poem here once (not my own) and I was informed rather loftily by another poet (you know who you are lol) that I have no right to be centering (i.e., reinterpreting) someone's writing besides my own. I guess he had a point: it does seem a mostly gimmicky thing to do. I personally get irked when there are initial caps on every line of a poem, which to me screws up the flow of the sentences. And that seems to have been a fairly popular style as late as the nineteenth century in Western cultures. But it really is a matter of preference, but I do agree it seems like an unconscious nod to Hallmark.

ETA: I just remembered a poem where I was spacing some stuff in a way to look like snow falling. I don't think it worked too well.

 

[bflagsst]

for the most part I'm anti-shapes, but I do think about the overall look of poems as I'm re-writing. sometimes it might even alter meaning in pursuit of making it look a little nicer.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I think we had a similar thread before about concrete poetry, and was it you bflag who couldn't see the point?
I used to centre all my poetry at one point and start each line with a capital letter (but that was BL ... before lit) some interesting shapes appeared that I wasn't aware I was making.
Isn't there some form besides concrete that has you writing in a triangular shape? I seem to recall a challenge of some sort that we did a while back

 

[Angeline]

I think we had a similar thread before about concrete poetry, and was it you bflag who couldn't see the point?
I used to centre all my poetry at one point and start each line with a capital letter (but that was BL ... before lit) some interesting shapes appeared that I wasn't aware I was making.
Isn't there some form besides concrete that has you writing in a triangular shape? I seem to recall a challenge of some sort that we did a while back

I sort of recall what you're talking about but not the name of the challenge. I think Bijou started the thread. I know I wrote some dick poem for it because I'm a crude, classless girl.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I sort of recall what you're talking about but not the name of the challenge. I think Bijou started the thread. I know I wrote some dick poem for it because I'm a crude, classless girl.

giggle

 

[Angeline]

giggle

See? You DO remember too.

 

[drown]

Why? What's the thinking that prompts this type of formatting? Does it contribute to the theme or meaning of the poem? Does it do something for the line? I am curious why a poet would center over left justify because of the places that I usually see poetry centered (greeting cards) and the places I ususally see poetry left justified (books). When a poem deviates from the norm, I think that the poet did so for a specific reason, so that I might have a more enriched experience from the poem. But, sometimes I don't see that in the poem and I wonder why it happens.

speaking from experience;

especially in this medium,
construction matters...

'the norm' is wet fresco here...

of course construction matters;
it's part of the tool box

​

 

[Palba_Noruda]

But most often, in my opinion, just the way that poet likes it to appear.

I agree EO. I think this is a very important reason.

It's sort of why center and why capitalize the first letter of each line? Just a preference to make it look a little nicer.

I agree. Why center, why capitalize, why rhyme, why write about a certain topic, why write eleven lines instead of ten, why use line breaks, why write at all?

Now

is that time
between then
and then

a

l
u
s
h

g
r
e
e
n

s
t
r
i
p

s
u
s
p
e
n
d
e
d

between
white-brushed
aching blues​

Ooh! I like it like THIS!

There isn't really any other reason to do it I can imagine except that the poet likes the way it looks.

I agree Angeline. I think it's important for the poet to follow his heart rather than worrying what some pesky audience is going to think

speaking from experience;

especially in this medium,
construction matters...

'the norm' is wet fresco here...

of course construction matters;
it's part of the tool box

​

I like this poem, Drown.

 

[EroticOrogeny]

I think centering works better for short than poems which are a bit longer.
May be a question of learned experience - just more used to words in a normal left-to-right and top-to-bottom order. Perhaps a linear thinking sort of thing. Sometimes signs outside a place of business will put the '1st' word in the middle line but bigger/bolder.and I will read it in the customary order. Something like

cake
Dawns
shop​

and I want to read it as 'cake dawns shop'.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Word capitalizes the first letter of every line for me, oh so politely. It simply pays no attention to the vitriol I toss at it. I have to navigate the stupid menus to make it format properly.

 

[Palba_Noruda]

Word capitalizes the first letter of every line for me, oh so politely. It simply pays no attention to the vitriol I toss at it. I have to navigate the stupid menus to make it format properly.

Ugh. Word's the worst, isn't it?

 

[george51]

A play on words?

He was a great poet.

 

[EroticOrogeny]

Word capitalizes the first letter of every line for me, oh so politely. It simply pays no attention to the vitriol I toss at it. I have to navigate the stupid menus to make it format properly.

I make my line breaks with <Shift><Enter>, rather than <Enter> (line break vs new paragraph). Word only capitalizes if I ended with a period on the line before.
Plus, you should be able to go back and fix it without going to menus.

 

[champagne1982]

Word capitalizes the first letter of every line for me, oh so politely. It simply pays no attention to the vitriol I toss at it. I have to navigate the stupid menus to make it format properly.

Word has an autocorrect option that's easy to turn off. In Office 2007, simply navigate to the Big Button in the top left... Click on that... move to the bottom and click on Word options... Once that menu opens there at the top of the box, is a little thing called auto correct options, you can edit these and remove the check from the boxes where it says to capitalize each sentence...

Voila... no problem

 

[EroticOrogeny]

Word has an autocorrect option that's easy to turn off. In Office 2007, simply navigate to the Big Button in the top left... Click on that... move to the bottom and click on Word options... Once that menu opens there at the top of the box, is a little thing called auto correct options, you can edit these and remove the check from the boxes where it says to capitalize each sentence...

Voila... no problem

Neat! I wasn't aware of that menu. When I first got 2007 I had to use help quite a bit to find how to do things on the new menus. I didn't choose to disable sentence caps (my technique works fine for me and has spacing automatically what I want for poetry), but did enable math symbols auto correct. I save in compatibility mode (.doc rather than .docx) so OpenOffice on Linux can also open them.
One thing that both Word and OpenOffice lack is parenthesis matching. I get that automatically in Emacs (for text files). If you do a lot of work in text files I'd recommend downloading it for Windows users (it should be there already on Linux/Unix) - a lot better than stuff like WordPad. Perhaps Emacs does that since its mostly implemented in LISP (some say it stands for Lots of Inter-nested Silly parentheses)

 

[champagne1982]

Neat! I wasn't aware of that menu. When I first got 2007 I had to use help quite a bit to find how to do things on the new menus. I didn't choose to disable sentence caps (my technique works fine for me and has spacing automatically what I want for poetry), but did enable math symbols auto correct. I save in compatibility mode (.doc rather than .docx) so OpenOffice on Linux can also open them.
One thing that both Word and OpenOffice lack is parenthesis matching. I get that automatically in Emacs (for text files). If you do a lot of work in text files I'd recommend downloading it for Windows users (it should be there already on Linux/Unix) - a lot better than stuff like WordPad. Perhaps Emacs does that since its mostly implemented in LISP (some say it stands for Lots of Inter-nested Silly parentheses)

I am what's called in lesser circles an "advanced" word user... I do know the program very well. Same as most of the office suite. I can't be called expert by any stretch but I am about one test/exam from that in most features, including Word and Access dB.

 

[EroticOrogeny]

I am what's called in lesser circles an "advanced" word user... I do know the program very well. Same as most of the office suite. I can't be called expert by any stretch but I am about one test/exam from that in most features, including Word and Access dB.

Congratulations! Hope you do well with that exam.
Most of my computer skills are self-taught (including tips from others).
Not counting GIS courses, just FORTRAN (with APL, too) and a couple of short in-house courses in C and Java. Algol and assembler (PDP-10) definitely on my own, many, many years ago.

 

[Palba_Noruda]

I used to use a word processing program called Dark Room. It's a very rudimentary program. Very rudimentary. And, it turns your whole screen black and your text is a green strip in the middle with a green blinking cursor and everything.

I stopped using it, though, cuz the save feature was a little wonky, and I ended up saving over like four months of work. Ugh. It was a user error btw, but the save function WAS a little wonky, too.

And you couldn't print from it, so if that's your thing, you'd end up putting it into Word for that. I dislike word a lot.

 

[EroticOrogeny]

Word (and its OpenOffice equivalent) are the only word processing programs I've ever really used. Maybe a long time ago whatever was in MS Works (is that still around ?). No fan of Microsoft, but its the standard an 'everybody' can read the files. A lot more experience with text editors (SOS, EVE, Emacs).