Nor or Or? Which one

Question

The last lines in my poem are as follows:

Ocean spray, it doesn’t get more blinding:

No course to set or loins to gird

Or voice to reassure it’s not too late

Is it no course ... nor loins ... nor voice,

or is it correct the way it is now?

and should I place commas after ‘set’ and ‘gird’?

thanks

Answer 1

Hi Abigail,

Your poem is written correct as is. It should be "or" instead of "nor" where indicated because "or" indicates an alternative yet similar idea or action to something else, whereas "nor" connects two or more similar ideas/actions into one main idea.

Answer 2

First I'd note that poems don't need to strictly follow grammar rules - choosing a word or phrase or piece of punctuation to achieve your intended effect on the reader is far more important than slavishly following grammar rules. As for your question, I think it would be accurate to do:

No course to set, nor loins to gird nor voice...

however I think this is too many "nors" and interrupts the flow of the poem too much. I think you could do something like:

Ocean spray, it doesn’t get more blinding:

No course to set, no loins to gird

no voice to reassure it’s not too late

You're creating a negative list so I think this reads much cleaner and creates a nice rhythm to go along with your word choices.

Of course Feel free to ignore this chsnge as it's your poem - do what you want

Best of luck!