Good point, Paul, but I actually think the poem is better without the punctuation.

 

With poetry, the intention—unlike that of expository prose—is to disrupt our expectations, to engage us in the process of teasing out meaning. The lack of punctuation slows us down to focus on the words and to group them to make meaning—to discover the meaning rather than to have it spoon-fed to us.

 

In the case of this particular poem, too, the lack of punctuation suggests a single image or unified experience—what the poem itself describes as “only a moment,” uniting remembered past with like-new present, an idea reinforced by the almost stream-of-consciousness delivery.

 

I love it, too, Ed. Thanks for sharing. We had just this kind of morning here today.

 

Nancy

 

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Paul E. Doniger
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 5:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: punctuation anyone?

 

Ed,

 

My first reaction is that punctuation would neither spoil nor improve it; poetry is meant to be heard, and if the punctuation is "accurate," it cannot change the music of the poem.

 

Paul

 

----- Original Message ----
From: Edgar Schuster <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 4:31:43 PM
Subject: punctuation anyone?

Folks,
     A friend just sent me the following poem by W. S. Merwin:

     Before A Departure in Spring
Once more it is April with the first light sifting
      through the young leaves heavy with dew making the colors
remember who they are the new pink of the cinnamon tree
      the gilded lichens of the bamboo the shadowed bronze
of the kamani and the blue day opening
      as the sunlight descends through it all like the return
of a spirit touching without touch and unable
      to believe it is here and here again and awake
reaching out in silence into the cool breath
      of the garden just risen from darkness and days of rain
it is only a moment the birds fly through it calling
      to each other and are gone with their few notes and the flash
of their flight that had vanished before we ever knew it
      we watch without touching any of it and we
can tell ourselves only that this is April this is the morning
      this never happened before and we both remember it

I love it myself, and had no trouble reading it in spite of its total absence of punctuation.  Thought I'd share it with fellow grammarians and punctuation lovers.
Just one question:  Would the addition of punctuation improve it or spoil it?

Ed Schuster


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