Grammar as Salvation:
Strabo, Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
Longinus and Demetrius
Grammarians saved poetry for us.
They saved immortal poetry that would
Have died except they loved making a fuss
About small points of style. This brotherhood
Of prissiness tut-tutted and smacked lips
About a hexastich and scansion, beat,
And caesura. They were no more than thrips
That sucked away at literature in neat
Pernickety essays on priggish scrolls.
An Aeolic form interested them more
Than genius, secretly. These little trolls,
Though, rescued auras from perfection’s shore.
Because of them bright beauty is revered.
….The lust of Sappho might have disappeared.
