The importance of purple fuzz

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

Around a decade ago, Brooklyn-born poet Steve Kowit received a call from a frantic friend. She was about to interview for a position teaching poetry in an MFA program and was "terrified" she might be asked about, well, the rules that guide the usage of the language she had been using--to some renown--all her life. In a word, grammar. He laughed and told her that teaching poetry (like doing good journalism, I must add) is not dependent on knowing the parts of speech (though it can't hurt if you do). After hanging up the phone, he wrote her this wicked villanelle:

The Grammar Lesson

A noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does.
An adjective is what describes the noun.
In "The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"

of and with are prepositions. The's
an article, a can's a noun,
a noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does.

A can can roll — or not. What isn't was
or might be, might meaning not yet known.
"Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"

is present tense. While words like our and us
are pronouns — i.e. it is moldy, they are icky brown.
A noun's a thing; a verb's the thing it does.

Is is a helping verb. It helps because
filled isn't a full verb. Can's what our owns
in "Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz."

See? There's almost nothing to it. Just
memorize these rules...or write them down!
A noun's a thing, a verb's the thing it does.
The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz.

She got the job. (And I got the story from Minnesota Public Radio's Grammar Grater.)