Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
Tense, You Buggers, Tense!
If ‘I CAN’ can, it’s done right away,
‘I CAN’ never can do it yesterday,
‘I can see, I can do, I can hear, I can feel,
‘I can go, I can stay, I can move, I can steal.’
If ‘I COULD’ ever could, then he’d do it last week
Because ‘I COULD’ and ‘I DID’ are best mates, (so to speak) .
‘I could see, I could do, I could hear, I could feel,
I could go, I could stay, I could move, I could steal.’
If ‘I DID’ ever did it, the deed has been done,
‘I DID’ never does it right now, old son.
‘I did not' - 'You did too' - 'So I did, you can sue, '
'What I did, when I did it, I did it for you.’
If ‘I WILL’ or ‘I WOULD’ or ‘I SHOULD’ are your thing,
Then don’t hold your breath, it’ll happen next spring,
‘I will go, I will come, I will be, I will see,
I would stay if I could, I should get home for tea.’
But if ‘I HAVE DONE’ ever comes raising it's head
The time has now gone, and the battle is dead.
‘I have seen, I have heard, I have said in the past
I have travelled the world, I have finished, at last! ’
(Written for my Chinese English students, in desperation, when they mixed past, present and future tenses in the same sentence) .
7 April 2006
poem
by
David Lewis Paget
solid border
dashed border
dotted border
double border
groove border
ridge border
inset border
outset border
no border
blue
green
red
purple
cyan
gold
silver
black