literature

The Grammar Gangsters

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Daily Deviation

Daily Deviation

December 1, 2008
The Grammar Gangsters by ~CyberPhantom is a very colorful poem that pokes fun at several grammar techniques: and does it with a fun and witty flair!
Featured by LadyLincoln
Suggested by Xovvo
CyberPhantom's avatar
By
Published:
20.5K Views

Literature Text

Beware the grammar gangsters!
The mafia of the literary underworld.
They saunter into stanzas,
Weapons concealed
Under their trench coats
Or in violin cases.

They can make you talk,
"With just a few well-placed speech marks,"
Leave you shouting! Where you should have whispered!
And pulp your bold statements into quavering questions?
They can, pepper, your, phrases with, commas,
Or bring your piece to a dead.
Full.
Stop.

They'll trap you (between brackets)
As you - dash - to the exit.
Then: punch a blunted colon
Into the gut of your text
Or worse;
Force-feed you a poisonous semicolon,
Then hack/slash your work to shreds.

The grammar gangsters
Never leave survivors.
Readers discover the victims
In the back alleys of the library,
Bloodstained,
Left unfinished,
In a tommy-gun ellipsis...
My entry for the Writer's Workshop competition: Punctuate with Purpose.

:iconwriters-workshop:

1: I almost always punctuate my poetry. As an English Language student and an actress, defining pauses and emphasis (especially in a more interpretive form of writing like poetry) are very important to me.

2: Considering the way I wrote this poem, there weren't any lines where I had to reconsider what the punctuation would be. It was more a case of making the line fit the punctuation than the other way around.

3: This is a new poem, inspired entirely by the theme: punctuate with purpose. I didn't feel there were any places where I had to force the puncuation. If anything, like I said above, the words were more difficult to find naturally.

4: I'd like the readers to smile a little and go, "That's kind of clever...I like that. Is that all the different types of punctuation there? I bet she's missed one. Hang on, let's have another read and check..."

Critiques are my life force. Without them I will descend into darkness. Help me out here.

~:~

EDIT: Thanks for everyone who's favourited this, commented and/or watched me. I have tried to respond to as many people as possible, but I'm drowning somewhat.

So, as general thanks:

THE GRAMMAR GANGSTERS:
:attila: 8-) :toocool: :threaten: :mib:

tip their fedoras to you ;)
© 2008 - 2024 CyberPhantom
Comments511
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TheWilted's avatar

I don't know how I ended up at this deviation, but I'm glad I did. Super cool.