English Composition 101

In English classes my skull would be reeling with a myriad of perplexities, Struggling to cope with English Composition and its multitudinous complexities! I could never understand (and never will) the mysteries of verbs and pronouns, Or dangling participles, prepositions, conjunctions and irregular nouns! "Your future will be mighty bleak," my patient teachers hinted indirectly, "If you don't learn the intracacies of the English lingo now - and correctly!" The long-suffering teachers considered me a dunce and their hopeless bane! I wanted to be a pilot! How was this folderol going to help me fly a plane! Incomprehensible to me were past, present and future perfect tenses! Invariably, I bungled their use in trying to parse my sentences! Fiddle Faddle! Why, I mused from my naive and youthful perspective, Would I ever have any use for a comparative or superlative adjective? My favorite classes were glee club, art and gymn - each in which I did excel, But adverb clauses, proper and predicate nouns to my mind just didn't gel. The use of consonants, vowels and indefinite articles left my head spinning. I couldn't understand the use of predicates or proper titles from the beginning! Thankfully, after the vicissitudes of high school and bewildering frustration, I somehow managed to accrue enough English credits for my graduation! Well, I reckon I ain't never gonna be no good at parsin' a sentence no how! (Wouldn't my teachers be proud of that line! Or would they me, disavow!) Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired © All Rights Reserved)