Do spelling mistakes matter? I caught myself being put off a poem by the spelling mistakes in it. And then thought 'hang on, there may be more here, why do the mistakes matter?' To which the reply was that if the poet doesn't care enough about their poem to get the spelling right in the era of spellcheckers, why should I care about it? But then I told myself I was being harsh and judgmental......and I probably was, wasn't I?

Usually I'm a stickler for correct spelling. Sometimes though I become aware of other possibilities.

When I worked as a writer in prison a man I worked with was dyslexic so his spelling was all over the place, and yet the poem he wrote for the prison magazins was very expressive and well-written. Should we have corrected his poem, or would something have been lost in the corrections? We decided to print as was, and chose to highlight the issue of dyslexia.

Spelling has only been completely standardised in the last 200 years. Before then words often had a choice of spellings. Shakespeare never spelled his name the same way twice.

Then of course there is the question of dialect - there is seldom such a thing as a standardised form of dialect spelling.

I am a excelent spellar and allways use correct grammer and make sure that apostrophy's ate allways in the right palice. Thats why I get annoyed when I sea these errors in other peoples work and usualy dont bovver reading them.


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When I see spelling errors I like to assume the post was written via smartphone. It's a little more excusable then.

I don't think it bothers me much. It can be to do with reading on a screen and not everyone will notice their own errors. I don't assume it is a lack of care and it may be nervousness. Also someone may not be brilliantly literate...but does that make them a crap poet? What if they are dyslexic and nobody is proof-reading for them? Age has made me much less judgemental about spelling and much more judgemental about people being judgemental! By the way that wasn't a spelling mistake. I like extra 'e's.

Poetry does indeed lent itself to a plethora of licenses but that should be no reason for not checking one’s work thoroughly before publication. Personally, I dislike it when poems start each line with a capital letter too, to me it’s lazy but evidently it’s okay!
With spellcheck functions on most devices/computers these days, with a little care, a perfectly readable effort can be produced.

A good example today (15 March) of a poem that was actually quite good but it was peppered with spelling and punctuation errors, which was very off-putting.

Note - I initially wrote offputting with no hyphen but corrected it when the system highlighted an error.

Thank you, Dave, for posting this question. (And hello.) As folks' posts have shown, this is not an easy one to answer. Having worked for years as a copy editor I can usually spot a mistake at 100 paces. Increasingly, though, I stop myself from saying anything. (I also read the Guardian website, and am weaning myself off shouting at the screen.)
It raises one of the fascinating aspects of the live poetry world (Spoken Word? Open-mic?). Where a piece of writing is delivered orally, received aurally, who knows whether the spelling (or anything else on the page) is correctly written? And isn't that one of the most exciting aspects of it, in that it liberates those for whom grammar, spelling, page layout are still a mystery, to be able to express what they want to express, share their words, without worrying if they are being judged for things at which school failed them? I have seen 'performance poets' whose writing was a single block of unpunctuated verbiage, yet delivers as a wonderful poem.

I think one of the jobs of a writer is to manage the impact of their words on the reader. It’s up to you but for me you haven’t made much of an impact with sloppy spelling.

I have to say that spelling errors and bad grammar really grate with me. That said, I still read them. I just don't enjoy them as much as if the writer had taken the trouble to get it right. The fault may be on my part, but I guess it's all down to the way I was taught English all those years ago.

It's because we didn't have Google and the Spillchucker in those days Trevor.

Your sarcasm amuses me ? brilliant quality to have

See I either assume its due to a smartphone (as mine always gives me typos) or possibly dyslexia. I'll usually try to keep reading if the content is good. But I guess some people may be lazy and just don't check.

Sometimes when I proof read I miss things until a few months later when I look back. But usually I manage to do it successfully.

It is easier and more pleasant reading work that's been proof read and spell corrected, but I try not to let it stop me reading work because you never know when you'll be missing out on a mind blowing poem.

If the meaning is unclear then I think it's good to ask 'hey what was your intent' otherwise for me at least would not be overly important. If you read any 18th 17th 16th century poetry people used to often have idiosyncratic ways of spelling certain words. Often better than the 'standard' spelling for me, can give insight into the psychology of the writer even if only to indicate haste. Then again it may well just be a mistake lol.

Up to the 18th century therr were no standard spellings even of names. Shakespeare's name is spelled every which way in the few documents we have with his name on.

The correct way to spell Google is GOoolag..

Ferris, I could not have put it better myself.

If it's done deliberately then fine. If it's through lack of understanding then I still might be put off enough to probably not read it - sorry. In that case I agree with Mr Bradley.

I'd never type a poem on a smart phone. That just seems bizarre to me. But that's just me.