Who Cares about Mere Language?
“Every word was once a poem.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson in “The Poet.”
Greek graffitos put the letter V and the letter M on walls during Greece’s occupation by Nazis. V = Vinceremo (we will win). M = Mussolini Merde. Any graffitos caught in the act were summarily murdered by the Nazis.
“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.” ~ Ostensibly spoken by Oscar Wilde
Respect for poetry, indeed respect
For language, is at best a zombie now.
All, all but language Puritans reject
Correctness. They’d much rather shout “Kerpow!”
To “who” and “whom.” Instead they mutter “that.”
They do not have the slightest interest in
Agreement of the verb with subject. “Splat!”
That goes. It’s hard to chart the greatest sin
Among the solecisms. One that’s least
Remarked is the dangling modifier.
My most abhorred one is a lesser beast.
It’s like an unwashed-tramp occupier
Upon a throne. It’s sinfulness is twice
As much as all the rest, the comma splice.