I’ve been noticing lately when I read someone’s poetry, the entire poem is highlighted or even just bits of it are. To me this ruins the reading experience. Poetry is meant to be savored, languished over, enjoyed in its original format. If the author wants to highlight a given stanza, they will do so themselves for effect.
But when everybody and their dog is highlighting the crap out of it, it is a challenge, to me, to come afterwards and read the poem that has been marked up. There have been times when I have stopped reading it altogether.
It would be the similar to liking a poet and deciding to purchase a book of their poetry. I’d want to enjoy it in its native format, unmarked, like virgin snow. I could enjoy all the nuances, the alliterations, the gentle or rocking rhymes and rhythms, or the unrhyming rant of their streams of consciousness. I would form my own opinions about their work and enjoy it in its original format.
But if that book — which I purchased new, with the expectation of reading it the way it was written by the author — came to me with scribbling and highlights all over it, I would probably lose my mind. Imagine certain passages that someone liked which are now underlined in yellow ink…
