Greetings—

Today, in my Advanced English Grammar class, I showed Langston Hughes’s “Daybreak in Alabama” as an example of a poem with two sentences.

I realized while showing the poem that I was not sure how to divide the slots of the first main clause, which is

…I’m gonna write me some music about

Daybreak in Alabama….

Shall I think of “I’m gonna write” as being equivalent to “I will write,” thus considering “[a]m gonna” as an auxiliary to “write”?

Or shall I think of “I’m gonna write” as being equivalent to “I am going to write,” thus considering “to write…” an adverbial infinitive phrase?

I would love to read some discussion on this clause and to be able to share it with my students afterward.

Thanks,

Glenda Conway

Professor, English

Coordinator, Harbert Writing Center

Department of English and Foreign Languages

Station 6420

University of Montevallo

Montevallo, AL 35115

205 665-6425 office

206 665-6422 fax