Couplet Format?

Question

Do couplets have periods or commas? For example is the format written this way:

The best of friends must part,
So other friendships can start.

or this way:

The best of friends must part
So other friendships can start?

Answer 1

The problem is not punctuation but intent. In the case you cite (basically iambic trimeter with a few extra syllables) I would leave the comma out, but I would also consider the intent either satyrical or inept, depending upon what followed.

Trimeter is a dangerous meter, almost never used alone. You might check out some of Houseman's poems, where it alternates with tetrameter. I think you might like him. But be careful; he was very classical and rarely humorous. Well, see "Clarence, this is stupid stuff..."

The rime itself is okay, but the meter draws the two rimes closer than they ought to be for serious intent. This is an essential problem in a line so short.

Try this in pentameter (the most common English meter for nonsatyrical poems) :

We were the best of friends, yet we must part,
As all links end ere other friendships start.

This isn't good, just an example. On the other hand, if I were attempting satire I think I would have used tetrameter.

Us friends? Us friends and us apart?
You need another friend? Then start.

Straight trimeter doesn't really work for either, and the extra syllables just make it clumsier.

I know I've possibly wounded you, and I'm very sorry, as I can see this may mean very much to you and that you're a person who doesn't need extra wounds, but I don't think it would be fair to be less than honest. And I know what I'm talking about.

Read a whole lot of Keats, Shelley and Byron, then start in on Tennyson, Browning and Hardy. Otherwise it's like being a fine cellist who has never heard of Mozart or Dvorzak.

Answer 2

Can be punctuated either, or any, way.

The punctuation should be in whatever manner makes sense, but the classification of the couplet is based not on the punctuation, but on the existence of paired rhymes to end the lines.