Sloppy Grammar

I grind my teeth every time I walk past St Martin's in the Fields - which is every day as it's on my way to Charing Cross station.....

Why?

[rant]

When the church was refurbished, the then Poet Laureat, Andrew Motion, wrote a poem about it. An extract from this poem can be seen on the well-that-looks-into-the-crypt. And it's got spelling mistakes in it 6 inches high. FFS, this is England, we invented the English language and if our poet bleedin' laureat doesn't even have the common decency to spell his poem correctly, or at the very least, use a spell checker, then why bother. Let's all use txt spk.

Tourists see that poem ffs - what must they think if the ignoramous's that invented the language can't even be bothered to get the language right on a public building in the heart of its capital.


Andrew Motion, you're a disgrace. Notice I wrote "you're" not "your" because I'm not some heathen neanderthal. Halfwit.

[/rant]


EDIT:


btw, the offensive poem:

Andrew Motion’s poem for St Martin-in-the-Fields

Now traveller, whose journey passes through

Tall courts of shifting light, and trudging crowds

Continually worn down but always new.

Your stepping inwards from the air to earth

Winds round itself to meet the open sky

So vanishing becomes a second birth.

Fare well. Return. Fare well. Return again.

Here home and elsewhere share one mystery.

Here love and conscience sing the same refrain.

Here time leaps up. And strikes eternity.

Originally Posted by Kinvig

...
Tourists see that poem ffs - what must they think if the ignoramouses that invented the language can't even be bothered to get the language right on a public building in the heart of its capital.
...
[/rant]

sorry couldn't resist

Originally Posted by RatchetJob

sorry couldn't resist

Yeah - I didn't know how to spell it & the spell checker just gave up!

BUT AT LEAST IT WASN'T ON A BIG PUBLIC BUILDING!!!!!

I'm tempted to go round with a can of spray paint and correct via graphitti the poor grammar of London

If the offending sentence is the highlighted Your stepping inwards from the air to earth, and you're drawing reference to the "Your" with the highlighting in your original post, you should be aware that this sentence is grammatically correct.

It's a gerund form, in which a verb acts as a noun - another example would be the sentence "I hope you don't mind my using your shower". Don't ask why I know this as a reference.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerund#..._by_a_genitive

graffiti

[Swin]

In the sense that it's describing the act of your movement, rather than the instruction that "you are" doing something?

Originally Posted by Swin

In the sense that it's describing the act of your movement, rather than the instruction that "you are" doing something?

Exactly

A non-gerund form of the sentence could read:

The stepping inwards you are doing from the air to earth
Winds round itself to meet the open sky

But that's a bit wordy for a Poet Laureat

Originally Posted by Neeja

Exactly

A non-gerund form of the sentence could read:

The stepping inwards you are doing from the air to earth
Winds round itself to meet the open sky

But that's a bit wordy for a Poet Laureat

Good, I thought the same thing but didn't know how to explain it!

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Kinvig

rantrantrantrant

Originally Posted by Neeja

If the offending sentence is the highlighted Your stepping inwards from the air to earth, and you're drawing reference to the "Your" with the highlighting in your original post, you should be aware that this sentence is grammatically correct.

It's a gerund form, in which a verb acts as a noun - another example would be the sentence "I hope you don't mind my using your shower". Don't ask why I know this as a reference.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerund#..._by_a_genitive

Lolz pwnt!

[TimTucker]

Originally Posted by Kinvig

Notice I wrote "you're" not "your" because I'm not some heathen neanderthal

You might have been a bit too quick to assert that.

In fact the next line, "Winds round itself to meet the open sky", doesn't make sense if the preceding line begins "You're".