Adult English Division - First Prize - Eileen Doherty (Westfield)
Diagramming Sentences
From Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition 9
“Many students find that they can understand a sentence better when they use a diagram. The diagram is a quick picture of how the various parts of a sentence fit together and how the words are related.”
1 understand a sentence
I loved diagramming sentences in Mrs. Moyers’ class,
loved the geometry of the finished frame,
perpendicular and parallel and angled lines,
words floating just above them. At 14, I liked knowing
everything had a place. A river or a chair or a small bird
could call itself subject and claim that space
on the horizontal line. When a boy brought his dog
into the sentence, he could throw a red ball
and the dog waited in an assigned spot, eager to catch it. Everything
was connected in the diagram, a girl leaving for school,
rain falling, the book left behind.
2 a quick picture
In the grocery store, a white-haired woman
brushes against someone in a blue coat. She turns
to apologize, sees the daughter who left the family
years earlier. They stare, maneuver their carts past each other,
move on.
3 how the parts fit together
Mrs. Moyers explained the parts of the sentence,
named each clause independent or subordinate.
In her sentences, if Despite preceded the threat of a storm,
the family picnic would continue. The man who followed Although
was dependent on the child who slept in the second part of his sentence.
I studied those complex constructions, measured the extra weight
they carried when words were chosen with care.
4 how the words are related
There are no bones or blood in the words
mother and daughter and the 14 letters do not remember
a single story of childhood, but when I draw a diagram,
setting mother and daughter on the same line,
only a small wall of ink separating them,
perhaps their complex sentence can bear
the weight of the word forgiveness,
carefully placed.
Eileen Doherty is a retired high school English teacher living in Westfield MA. She is a member of and regional representative for the International Women's Writing Guild and has had poems published in a number of magazines, including Peregrine, Rattle, and Cider Press Review.
