Why Grammar Matters: A Place To Discuss Matters Of Grammar

[StatisticalOutlier]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Just because it’s the end of a line in a poem

But some of the other lines don't end with a comma.

[dargosmydaddy]

And poem lines don't need to end with any punctuation, if you wouldn't normally put it there in a "regular" sentence.

Edited Thursday at 12:55 AM by dargosmydaddy

[fastiller]

12 hours ago, dargosmydaddy said:

And poem lines don't need to end with any punctuation, if you wouldn't normally put it there in a "regular" sentence.

Poems lines don't need to end with any punctuation at all, even if you would normally put it in a 'regular' sentence.  That's the absolute beauty of poetry.  

[EtheltoTillie]

14 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Just because it’s the end of a line in a poem — I still need to reprint it, so I could nix the comma…

I would leave the comma. It adds a little pause that I think is appropriate. 

Grammar does not have to be exact in poetry 

[fastiller]

This is more about spelling than grammar, but there's no spelling-related thread here.  A client just replied to and email one of my colleagues sent; it was colleague's third reminder Client was replying to.  Client who did the response is the co-owner and he called out two of his employees asking that they respond 'IN A TIMLEY MANNER!!!!".  Timley Manor sounds like the Crawleys' neighbours in Downton Abbey.

Edited Friday at 02:09 PM by fastiller
punctuation - ironic, eh?

[shapeshifter]

On 1/9/2025 at 8:11 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

I would leave the comma. It adds a little pause that I think is appropriate. 

Grammar does not have to be exact in poetry 

Thanks for this. It rang true for me.
For any who wondered about the "final" wording 
(others feel free to ignore)
I decided the long E sound of the first line of "Sloop John B" was iconic for me, so:

• Gramma came over and we,
  Built a house out of couch cushions,
  And in a pretend car,
  We went out on pretend missions,
  Stopped for lots of pretend animals,
  …who were crossing the road,
  Then later we came to know
  …mixing only blue and yellow playdough,
  To make a snake that became a gecko      
  …with arms,
  Can be nicer than mixing
      all colors into brown.

 

I want to chop a syllable out of:

• Stopped for lots of pretend animals

Maybe:

• Stopped lots for pretend animals

— or is that grammatically incorrect? 
It seems like it. But maybe it's just odd?

 

[Zella]

4 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I want to chop a syllable out of:

• Stopped for lots of pretend animals

Maybe:

• Stopped lots for pretend animals

— or is that grammatically incorrect? 
It seems like it. But maybe it's just odd?

I don't think it sounds as good to me personally, but more than anything it subtly changes the meaning. Rather than stopping (however many times) for lots of pretend animals, it is now stopping a lot of times for pretend animals (however many of them there are). It would depend on where you want your emphasis on what there is a lot of--the number of animals or the act of stopping. 

[EtheltoTillie]

I agree, keep the original line stopped for lots of pretend animals. 

[shapeshifter]

28 minutes ago, Zella said:

Rather than stopping (however many times) for lots of pretend animals, it is now stopping a lot of times for pretend animals (however many of them there are).

LOL, I think it's sometimes stopping a lot for the same animal and sometimes stopping for different animals.

By the time I'm done with this, I probably could have embroidered it, heh.

 

Edited 6 hours ago by shapeshifter

[Zella]

15 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

LOL, I think it's sometimes stopping a lot for the same animal and sometimes stopping for different animals.

Stopped lots for lots of pretend animals! 😆

[Browncoat]

I like the first version better (without the comma at the end of the first line), but if you keep the second version, I'd lose a lot of those commas.