Whether to capitalise or not to capitalize the start of lines

[ellajam]

Caps were good enough for Yates, weren't they?  Doesn't that end the discussion?  Beyond that the "new" is just a passing evolutionary flavor, don't you think?

When ee cummings was in vogue, should we have taught everyone to cast their poems in his formalistic style?

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Should everyone utilize dashes (---) in their poems like Emily Dickinson?

No, no, no, no and no. IMO each poet should make a conscious decision about every aspect of the poem and whether or not it helps to achieve that occasional perfect experience of reading a poem that hits its mark fully on every level, a poem that the reader loves.

I read plenty of older poetry, like newer poetry a lot of it sucks, it just leaves me cold. Just because someone has written some really great poems doesn't make every one of them successful.

Should we paint every night scene by candlelight? Or not write down poems at all, just stick to the oral storytelling that humans used for so long. Surely something is lost in the reading instead of hearing, And hey, when poems are read, or Shakespeare recited, is the first word of each line stressed? Not to my ear.