DAVID C. HASKINS

Why Teach Parsing to Grade Schoolers

 

　

If there were no more adverbs, no more places, times, circumstances,

If there were no more adjectives, qualifiers, modifiers,

If there were no nouns, names, lists, categories,

If there were no pronouns, replacements, persons,

If there were no syntax, arrangements, calculations, reasons,

　

There would be no board meetings, parliaments, arguments with lovers,

There would be no novels, histories, cook books, telephone directories,

There would be no schools, Dow-Jones average, film at eleven,

We would not know that 325 blackflies in the bush

Land on a square foot of cloth in a minute in June;

We would not know we are different from each other,

I am not you, you are not who;

We would thieve to get, kill to eat, spend the day

Finding a safe night’s rest;

　

We would not notice childhood slip away,

Nor count the mileposts toward our deaths;

We would not know we are dying, until

the sudden crunch of jaws through neck;

　

But, there are parts of speech....