Steve Kowit’s “The Grammar Lesson” is a whimsical villanelle, 19 lines with the traditional rime scheme, ABAABAABAABAABAABAA, scattered among five tercets and one quatrain. The repeated lines that form the refrain plus the final refrain repetition are also present in this villanelle.
First Tercet: “A noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does”
The speaker pretends to offer a “grammar lesson” beginning with the “noun,” which he explains, is “a thing.” Immediately, he moves on to the “verb,” which he defines as what a thing “does.” The reader will identify with this lesson learned in elementary school that a noun is the name of a person, place, or thing, and a verb always describes an action or state of being.
The speaker concludes his first tercet with an example sentence that contains “an adjective” that “describes the noun”: “The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz.”
Second Tercet: “of and with are prepositions. The's”
The speaker tackles the prepositions, pointing out that “of” and “with” in the preceding sentence are prepositions. He says that “the” is an article; he notes that “can” is a noun, and then he repeats the definition of noun, “a noun’s a thing.” He also repeats, “A verb's the thing it does.”
The poet finds himself in a lucky position: the villanelle requires repetition, and so does teaching a grammar lesson. Thus, this happy situation provides the poet and his speaker with the tools simply to have some whimsical fun.
Third Tercet: “A can can roll - or not. What isn't was”
The speaker continues his lesson by illustrating the interesting fact that both “can” as a noun and “can” as a verb exist side by side in the language: “A can can roll—or not.”
He then tackles the curiosity of tenses, emphasizing that “might” means “not yet known.” Returning to the can of beets, he uses the line, “Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz,” to demonstrate the tense of the be verb, which he carries on into the next tercet.
Fourth Tercet: “is present tense. While words like our and us”
Here the reader discovers that “is” is present tense, as exemplified in the “can of beets” example.
The speaker next moves on to pronouns, stating that “words like our and us / are pronouns.” Clinging to the can of beets image, he offers further examples of pronouns: “it is moldy, they are icky brown.” And yet again, the required return to refrain, “A noun's a thing; a verb's the thing it does.”
Fifth Tercet: “Is is a helping verb. It helps because”
Explaining the nature of the “helping verb,” the speaker elucidates that “is” is a helping verb, because “filled” is not a “full verb”; thus it requires a helper. He then returns to the pronoun, this time explaining the possessive pronoun’s use, “Can’s what our owns.” Of course, he is once again referring back to his sample sentence, “Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz."
Quatrain: “See? There's almost nothing to it. Just”
Quite possibly growing weary of his grammar lesson, the speaker decided to sum up. He first asks his phantom student, “See?” And continues by claiming that grammar lessons are really quite simple, and he then admonishes his student to simply “memorize these rules . . . or write them down!” To which he attaches the requisite, final repetition: “A noun's a thing, a verb's the thing it does. / The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz.”
Source:
- Steve Kowit, “The Grammar Lesson,” Poetry 180, Library of Congress.
Linda Sue Grimes - As a writer, researcher, and SRF devotee, Linda Sue Grimes has studied poetry and practiced Kriya Yoga for over thirty years..
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