The Deviated Use of Punctuation Marks in Poetry: A Stylistic Study

Abstract

Language is a powerful tool in the hands of a poet. Punctuation marks (symbols or signs used to make the writer’s meaning clear) are the tool one can use to talk to the reader and draw his/her attention to specific points. Punctuation marks are important syntactically and semantically; since each one has its own uses and meanings. Their oddness and unconventional use by some poets such as Cummings, Blake, and Pound helps them to color their poems with special aspects and serves them to convey various meanings. Naturally, stylistics is the science through which the use of language in literature can be dealt with.