Poetry typography question
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- BaskerviIle
I'm typesetting some poetry for a wedding (order of service).
I am preserving all the line breaks as intended. My question is, is the convention always to capitalise the first letter of each line, irrespective of sentence?eg:
Like an apricot tree among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among the boys.
To sit in its shadow was my delight,
and its fruit was sweet to my taste.
He took me into the wine garden
and gave me loving glances.or
Like an apricot tree among the trees of the wood,
So is my beloved among the boys.
To sit in its shadow was my delight,
And its fruit was sweet to my taste.
He took me into the wine garden
And gave me loving glances.which one?
- baseline_shift0
i would do the first.
How was the poem originally formatted?
- duckofrubber0
There is no convention in poetry anymore.
- ian000
Unless you are setting a collection of poems and have made a stylistic decision to standardize the format so that the reader is not distracted by the subtle changes, I would not alter the authors conscious choice regarding punctuation.
- BaskerviIle0
the raw text I was given was the first example.
I think since it's is an extract from a very long poem one should preserve the sentence case.Just read through 'Hart's Rules for compositors and readers' and it says:
(f) Copy should be followed for capitals at the beginnings of lines (modern verse sometimes has none). In Greek and Latin verse it is usual to capitalize only the first word of each paragraph
- so I guess it's fine to leave it as isBaskerviIle
- Ask the author. if she's done it to a standard convention, then fair enough - if she hasn't, your edits would spoil her intent.Nairn
- Scotch_Roman0
This is from the Song of Solomon, which in most Bibles is typeset in sentence capitalization. So, it should be set as you have it in the first example.
- Scotch_Roman0
—At least it's a close take on Solomon's Song, or perhaps a different translation than my Bible. Mine says:
"As an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
so is my beloved among the young men.
With great delight I sat in his shadow,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
He brought me to the banqueting house,
and his banner over me was love."- Hmm, inconsistency in the Absolute Word, eh? Huh. whodathunkit?Nairn
- The meaning is consistent across all translations :)Scotch_Roman
- Also I think whomever gave B'ville the text made some alterations of their own. I've not seen the apple > apricot change elsewhere.Scotch_Roman
- change elsewhere.Scotch_Roman
- have you read the original aramaic?BaskerviIle
- You mean the original Hebrew? No, but my old man has.Scotch_Roman
- BaskerviIle0
Yup it's a translation from song of solomon, so I think the sentence case makes sense. Just wanted to check that I shouldn't capitalize each line.
Thanks everyone, good work fellow type geeks
- jimzyk0
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