Only dead languages never change

narrative verse

Only dead languages never change

 

The English language flexibly

 Adopts new words to supplement

 its basic vocabulary

Almost it seems by accident.

 

They rarely mean what they used to.

We tend to use them differently

Sometimes they something quite new

 to what they meant originally.

 

We will steal words from any source.

From languages both old and new.

To enhance learned discourse

or simply because it suits us to.

 

It’s spoken almost everywhere.

We have no right, we can’t complain.

If it seems different here and there.

I merely means it’s changed again.

 

To suit the local dialect.

The lazy drawl or close clipped speech.

Exactly as you would expect,

 when English speakers try to teach.

 

Their version of the language to

 the indigenous populace

Who do not speak the way we do

It’s bound to change from place to place

 

It‘s like a living entity

 and will struggle to survive.

Against the odds apparently

 it manages to grow and thrive.

 

It seems no mater where you go.

English still proves adequate

To learn the things you need to know.

We manage to communicate

 

Sufficiently to understand

that English changes constantly

As it spreads from land to land.

Which it does efficiently.

 

The English language flexibly

 adapts and blends with local speech.

Demonstrates capability

to learn new ways as well as teach.

 

Tuesday, 16 March 2010.

http:// blog.myspace.com/poeticpiers

Reviews

[An owl on the moon]

Very well spoken, allowing us to sense the vibrance and life of the English language. Here it is like a family, birthing new words, while other die, yet all still tied together through strands of time. Powerful poem!