Is anyone else tired of listening to noobs defending their lack of grammar skills, claiming that as long as their poems are original, it'll make up for the grammar? Maybe it's just me but I'm tired of hearing that grammar isn't important in poetry, so unless you're James Joyce, SHUT UP AND USE IT!
Well, if you're trying to rhyme, you're bound to bend sentence structure a bit. But if it's regular free-flow, good grammar is a plus.
I get tired of that. Someone once said that in order to know how to subvert the rules and twist them to your advantage, you must understand them first. Most of the time, poetry can be enhanced with grammar.
unless poor grammar is needed for effect, as in dialog, or showing a character trait of the narrator/writer, knowing and using decent grammar is definitely important in ALL kinds of writing... to let good grammar go by the wayside, with the excuse that it's 'poetry' is nothing but a standard copout of the hobby/amateur poet... no serious poet will eschew good grammar in her/his work, unless he/she has a good reason for doing so...
Good grammar can spell the difference between a good and bad poem. And a good poem with bad grammar is definatley not as good(in my mind) as it could be with grammar.
I voted grammar is important...by far. On one of the forums I go to, this girl keeps on posting up stories, and all of them have very crappy grammar. They're very nice stories and I enjoy reading them, but it's very hard since the grammar is very bad. I guess it's worse with poetry. So...I will not be tempted to read a non-grammatical poem/story, lol.
