Wren & Martin refers to a single book High School English Grammar and Composition or collectively, a series of English grammar textbooks written jointly by P.C. Wren and H Martin. Written primarily for the children of British officers residing in India, these books were widely adopted by Indian and Pakistani schools in the post-colonial era and missionary schools in Burma. The books were published in 1935, with a discussion on composition added later.
– Wikipedia
For children growing up in India in the Eighties, Wren & Martin was an essential key into the English language. Though we studied it religiously, many of us spoke the language without any regard to the rules of grammar. The book comes with exercises, about eighty of them. This series of poems reimagines those exercises as scenarios, conversations amongst boys, dialogues derived from a broken grammar, spoken without restrain, breaking structure. The words used are from the book.
Exercise in Grammar 1: The Arrows are Flying Back and Forth
Indestructible early bird at the table one day a hermit
saved, might
The burning boy good memory he has of a
prison
Can serve masters invented better habits of the singing in the sunshine
All matter unconsciously grow at the stone walls the earth
a sick room the rude dewdrops We should profit by
Borrowed garments
The sea hath
Pumped
Stone Walls
The shepherd hears
All roads lead to
A barking sound
No
An arrow
needs no excuse.
The phonograph is the best physician, Edison
The sun
Soon faded away
The worm fit well
into the Earth
I shot
A barking sound
Well aired
“the beautiful rainbow”
On the top of the hill
Glitter
Cackling
Exercise in Grammar 2: Oriental Rhapsody
Still still
After
The after effects
Weighs us all
off me. Fast
fast suddenly One
of the wheels came off
He kept a fast.
While you sleep,
Rest a while,
While
I While away
my evenings
Exercise in Grammar 3: Oriental Rhapsody, Contd.
Studying Grammar
In his innocence
I Recognized our team
A fleet of ships over the Godavari
flows
all we loved
without voicing
a note of crookedness
their verdict is a lie.
Exercise in Composition 4: Oriental Rhapsody, Contd.
qualities that belong to
an abstract collective
a cruel herd
of brave cattle
make for lazy soldiers
Exercise in Composition 5
The length of his youth. The strength of his truth. The width of his wisdom. The breadth of his freedom. At the height of his poverty. The indecency of his humility. The velocity of his prudence. The goodness of his absence. Take pride in his bravery. Justice needs no vanity. His cruelty is no need for bitterness. It’s a darkness that gives you depth and sweetness to the rest of humanity. Don’t mistake its novelty for quickness. Here sanity is the same as ignorance.
In conversations with him such wild discoveries.
As if in a life without expectations,
Laughter would follow with obedience
Since knowledge that strives for excellence follows Theft.
No pleasure but in action against such hatred for his belief
In which the very perseverance of memory were
a departure from thought.
Starvation rendered its services in tiny seizures,
the concealment of flattery in a gallant jolt.
Choice has no occupation in this movement,
no protection or defense will work
is the advice. No judgment in sight
Because what you seek to punish, I think of
as a freedom, a success to the pursuit of relief.
*
His Kingdom or His Knighthood.
His Manhood or His Manliness
the theft or the bankruptcy.
The greed or its ownership?
This friendship between
such abstract heroism
and pure piracy.
Like his priesthood
and piety,
against youthfulness
of relationship
begs pilgrimage
without proper captaincy
It would be cowardice to wish for a more abstract rascal.
The unlearning: one
The group of words “threw a stone” at the (old use)
most common in poetry: a noun
that denotes a thing is either male or female.
The first word of each pair denotes boys, a forming,
form the plural by adding
Merely add
Echoes
Volcanoes
Wolves leaves shelves
Selves hoof in current
kinds of fish
a school
But are in fact singular. Like the word “news”
Is his favorite study won by an innings & 3 runs.
Or a penalty
and
are mine mimed
Plural as: From Latin: errata
From Greek: hypotheses
From French: Monsieur
are not parts that come to terms with one another, for
Some have two plural forms, each with a somewhat different
and thus grow a garment over
signs in algebra
Symbols made to multiply by adding an apostrophe.
It is usual to say—
They become countable
As in: who threw a stone?
a dose of
fine grains like dust
*
Building are letters of the alphabet in literature, sights
you need spectacles before the accusative,
which comes after the broken window, or by the sense
Compare: speech is changed to love felt by children who question When the noun is singular
And does not end
but must take the possessive laws to denote Doubt is welcomed. a dose of
fine grains like dust
*
Building are letters of the alphabet in literature, sights
you need spectacles before the accusative,
which comes after the broken window, or by the sense
Compare: speech is changed to love felt by children who question
When the noun is singular
And does not end
but must take the possessive laws to denote
Doubt is welcomed.
Exercise in Grammar 6
The foolish crow tried to sing a grammar of the English language to the large, honest man to show how much of a thing is meant. He showed much patience. He claimed his half of the sufficient rain with little intelligence, and since then there has not been order in the whole sum, as a person stands five fingers like cold waters I have taught you no pictures there are no pictures in this book this Sunday here is the several mistakes most men make and all boys hand the mango in your exercise the week ripe with three exact kinds of mangoes each boy must take his turn India expects every man to do his duty every word of it is false with pen will do on either side is a narrow lane neither accusation is true.
Though some boys are clever all men must die.
There are no pictures in this book.
Are there any mango trees in this garden?
You have no sense. This boy is stronger. That boy is industrious.
These mangoes are sour. Those rascals must be punished. Yonder fort once belonged to Shivaji. Don’t be in such a hurry. I hate such things. Which? What manner of man is he? Which way shall we go? Whose book is this I read with my own heavy eyes? Which pen do you prefer? What time is it? He is a man of few words. He comes every day. Every man has his duties. Say the same thing twice over. Several persons were present at the time. I have called several times. I have not seen him for several days.
Exercise in Composition 7
a siege
by a Hindu
in a wretched hut
ended in a storm
The fare
His reading
Has always heard
seeds, a heavy blow.
The injured man
You cannot have
wants advice.
Duty
Is his reason to
undermine health
In places a man will not reason calmly
He stands for fame himself.
He always walks with a
Easily corrected cloud
listened to in silence.
Exercise in Composition 8
Easily Clara pitifully Matthew timely Heavenly healthy wealthy metaphase lovely snore hilly needy Elizabethan green roomy costly painful doubtfully gathered wonderfully into peaceful night childish Davy princely Sailor majestic Island ridiculous picturesque laborious wooden pompous artist progressive slavery contemptuous tempestuous sensibly quarrelsome thoughtful “his crumb of words” hopeful Emily friendly Susan.
Exercise in Composition 9
Tenderly happy that you touch
Slight sweating in the fingertips
A thread retains its identity in the big braided pattern.
Or the sad phenomena of identifying these words as industrious in the lazy hours.
The small stability of the island that bifurcates the soft flow of the river
to reflect the harsh profile of the weather against a hard city.
You stay polite.
This crowd is rude.
To escape a distant certainty is not the wise option.
Then “Happy Birthday, Foolish!” written on rich chocolate cake becomes a poor example of how the people make the party more handsome. The bartenders dare not make a weak drink. He tries not to think of the slow movement of night, long, clever conversations had over quick exchanges. Our meetings on the other hand are always too short. You’re even more handsome from this side of the bar over this ugly mix of dull flame and a stolen glance. Kind of cruel, but also healthy
for the distant future to be always so dutiful.
Triptych
Exercise in Composition 10
The seize happened in a snow storm, in his sleep
Hands that are water blow a silent advice
A servant to the flower that is the city
Artist and dealer
with the voice of a husband
An immense subject
As a child
Made the king act like a dog.
Exercise in Composition 11
That resistant fortune of an unwavering man becomes the ever-changing news
A novel without progress
There’s accidental room for a few happy incidents
and the surprise that is good health these days.
Exercise in Composition 12
The lily-livered yellow scintilla
All wild and hot
Glared even in the inexpensive light
Most fertile in an ugly office all impatient
To be dishonest and in an uncivilized foist
Careless and weak the inexperienced speed
But never averse to being merciful
Rock-solid.
Exercise in Composition 13: Absolute Superlative
Dark still
The surpass
Surtax. Sultan. Grows sicker by the day, the gloomiest of weathers
pleases him.
The safest idea to him seems the most mad. Worse, the more unjust the weather to his most able, most gay servants the merrier his exchange with them. They grow more timid as their lips, more dry. ‘This is the ugliest year of them all,” they think to themselves. But not all of them have been the truest possible to our man. A more exacting look would reveal he’s been most severe to the ones that have been the most agreeable. A more difficult man would at least care, so as to inflict fewer, more rhythmical wounds.
Exercise in Composition 14: Our Taluka
The latter part of the book suggests the majority later accepted the hurry of the Sultan’s taluka.
I prefer he was placed in the proposition later, not in the former news of his having the sun in the centre
Rama Hari and Govind
Lets think of them in the Sultan’s age
Govind is the eldest but Rama is older.
His brother is in the Indian Police Service.
She is the two sisters. The nephew is the uncle
Of my five oldest sons. That mosque
is older than the town. The school is in
the older railway station, to which I cannot walk any longer.
Until further orders, a bungalow will have to act as the school and you as the headmaster.
For further particulars, apply to Box No. 65.
Tell them the latest news of the missing plane isn’t very disquieting to the ocean Though they can keep combing the water, that armada of ships, planes, helicopters that whir in high spirits over
Today we expect receiving the last good news. An ignominious end is just a few hours the emperor came near to my house, and then passed. This house is now nearest to mine. The burglar has taken to my house. The nearest railway station is two miles from here.
Exercise in Composition 15
His friends were his good fortune, a wonder to the mind
Something he had never seen.
Their simple word
as good as holiday of half a working day
or the cock of a gun drawn at
Half the slightest excuse. He will choose the less
and hope that the matter will be cleared up some day.
Posit
The Taj himself
Say the same thing twice over. About the moon
The longest turning of my shadow will come into its
own if I don’t look up was the wholesome advice.
Open rebuke is better than secret love and so I ore. I mean
Row. Say the same thing twice over. Hunger for the wise men.
The innermost digit, a slight cold, always with so much
depends on the curl of your hair—sauce, small-talk
We never had such sport from the sun.
I have other things to attend to, says the idlest boy.
So much for a fair hearing, the trademark
Glean in the garden of his absence, the flesh-like
meander. Nonsense of a mildly drunk heaven
the news makes with little noise.
Exercise in Composition 16
Here’s a form of comparison that is more pleasing to the ear
One that makes the very comparison itself less shameful.
A couleur de rose, the cleverest
skin, smell
A most interesting modus vivendi
Uttered
With an accent or lisp isn’t less hopeful
The listening, less honest.
Exercise in Composition 17, 18
Though he seemed to be thinking of infinitely more important things as I got more impatient and rude. Unfortunately, my stupidest mistakes were the most delightful to him. That made him even more attractive. The loofah felt most pleasant. It was the heaviest of waters I had ever been under, I thought, as the beautifulest marble patterns began to form the veins of my feet. I’d been most fortunate with this drug. This May had been better than the other month, her doll than yours. He is the honor of his friend though Govind is more ferocious.
The hidden boy is also breaking out a trade in the living part of the
name, the Sind
In Pakistan, the Iron of all metals, the poet the public requires, the cure in a diet, can take the silver better than all the buildings on the streets of Mumbai.
The background texture comes to life
depth is highlighted
when he puts a pattern on the glass (the touchscreen is larger than the other oceans
Which of the two girls has made the dress lovelier? Its use, every morning
bleeding out of the screen, the streets
“Look at night enhancing these lights
The Arabian Nights is the honor of his pen. Who is the prettier boy in the class? Of all countries. The clouds afloat. The Qutub Minar, knocked down. The richest is the bowler in eleven
the most industrious sum in the air
than any other English, who was one of the speakers
at the peak of the Himalayas.
Exercise in Composition 18, 19
the wild gold airs
descriptions most unachieved in my book.
Iron is more useful.
Exercise in Composition 20
Older than quartz in an ancient sandstone
Conduit
steeped in
smaller diameters
“explode the existing world.”
And just as industrious as jupiter an opportunity
to openly overhaul the largest democracy
in a more easy resort. Some boys interchange
the enterprising degrees of a building into
Fragments of abrasion on a grain of sand.
And just as strong days vanish into his growing body
The beard
“a blueprint of the unrealized”
passes from the many colored to the dark
And does not return hither again.
Exercise in Composition 21
The grain damaged by the sea water is necessary. It prevented a catastrophe. The influence it has was used to the best advantage of the continent and is likely to be very useful to Him.
Exercise in Composition 22, 23
(all) this
winked.
Nothing else winked
In the days spent in public libraries in solitude and meditation. The many days that are needed to study Sanskrit. A question of fewer questions and remarks to the point many years after. The Year spent in short volume show his gratitude and his genius Offices the many trinkets written to his excellence, The Indefinite
Useful metal
does not always have a distinguishable look
A native of the honest young skies about Varanasi
He returned the world to a happy place by the lamp Shines more brightly than the sun, close, I first met him yesterday.
The sacred river speaks a difficult language. Girl, you are a fool to say the longest river speaks an easy language. It is like coming To Mumbai without umbrellas. The egg I bought to give him a Message. An island the guide doesn’t know his way around this Serious matter, most wonderful animal, let us discuss the owl
As an honor to this profession, the best present in all of Asia.
Exercise in Composition 24 / Brutus Armstrong
In the East, hope in medicine is acquired
a lost arm in open air
not an hour too fast
Set back
The poor must take snow and ice to the map
He mouthed an accident,
What’s the moon to an old Mussalman?
A poet who wishes the musician a beautiful river
The bridge did not rise for fair play.
He likes to picture there is nothing in that great cause
at home
to office
an umbrella
Against the thunderstorm
Uncivil, the afternoon and how little
in general, people know about the sky.
Some failed scheme equal to the size of Asia
Time makes my favorite flower computed by
Number of years
Made cotton of them.
Men are led astray by the best quality
Wild animals suffer from
pleasure that is
the captivity of your company.
islands started attending
only a few hours from his house
Man cannot live by
when will this March be back in Italy?
What kind of bird is that?
Let into the body as a sentence, a point more ancient than we had
imagined
where the world would pause
a shield that conquered the wind
the rain acts as his undertaking, a cradle
two horses
design
echoes to a storm no one ever doubted
the apostrophe is a friend used to connect parts of
do we not bleed?
& boundaries break
“the most admirable Rajput prince that ever reigned Asia
victories he’s too vicarious to claim.
Biswamit Dwibedy is the author of Ozalid (1913 Press, 2010), Eirik's Ocean (Portable Press, 2016), and Ancient Guest (HarperCollins, 2017), with two new books forthcoming: Erode and Hubble Gardener (Spuyten Duyvil Press), and a chapbook titled MC3 (Essay Press) out next year. He is the editor of Anew Print and a co-editor for the journal 1913. In 2014, he guest edited a dossier of contemporary Indian poetry, translated from seven regional languages, for Aufgabe13, published by Litmus Press. He lives in Bangalore, where he teaches at the Srishti Insititute of Art, Design, and Technology, and directs the Anew Writing Program.