It would seem that we all agree that the purpose of diagrams is to establish th
e
foundations for serious analyses of language and how sentences create specific
meanings.Grammar should be taught in conjunction with poetry.  "Because I could
not stop
for Death, he kindly stopped for me..." for example poses a linguistic problem h
aving to
do with the fact that the subordinate clause comes first. Had Dickinson written:
 "Death
stopped for me because I could not stop for him..." the entire meaning would hav
e
changed. Her choice might have been dictated  no doubt by the meter, but nonethe
less
the question is: What meaning has been changed? Why is it important to open the
poem
with an adverb clause? And, ultimately what does this linguistic choice have to
do with
the meaning of the poem itself?  It would seem that the true purpose of diagrams
 is to
permit students to understand how English works. Once they understand such matte
rs as
subordinate clauses, participial phrases, gerund phrases, infinitive phrases, et
c., once
they understand the many ingredients that go into the soup of language, then the
 real
purpose of the study of grammar becomes clear.
   I would be interested to hear from anyone who teaches Grammar through Poetry.
In the King James Version of the Bible, we find the following grammatical proble
m:And
God created man in his own image; in his own image created He him."  What is the
 
function of the "He him" together on the page? Why are subject and direct object
 next to
each other? What meaning is created through this choice? These are some of the m
any
issues that permit studets to understand the Grammar is a tool for analysis not
merely a
list of rules and regulations whose purpose it is to write a functional business
 letter.
   Ron