Programming N' LanguageMy favorite dad joke play on words: Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. What is yours?
👉 https://pnl.dev/captionz/?link=https:%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgWb03UazHY8
hugo.William Carlos Williams, died #OTD in 1963.
Visit the Grammaticus blog today and enjoy his short poem "Winter Trees" - it may appear to be about trees in winter, but it’s just as much about us.
https://grammaticus.blog/2025/01/22/winter-trees-by-william-carlos-williams/
#poem #poetry #williamcarloswilliams #literature #americanliterature #learningenglish #englishteacher
Latest on the blog: a short poem by the father of Canadian poetry, Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts.
Set in the cold and silent month of February, "The Brook in February" captures the tension between winter’s stillness and the hidden vitality of the coming spring.
As always, vocabulary exercise included!
https://grammaticus.blog/2026/02/25/the-brook-in-february-roberts/
#poem #poetry #canada #canadianliterature #winter #february #englishteacher #learningenglish
grammaticus“The Brook in February” by Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts
Charles G. D. Roberts (1860-1943) was a prominent Canadian author and public intellectual, often referred to as the father of Canadian poetry. He wrote numerous works of fiction, but he also did a lot of nature and travel writing, largely focused on Canadian themes.
The short poem presented here was first published in his collection “The Book of the Native” in 1896. Set in the cold and silent month of February, it captures the tension between winter’s stillness and the hidden vitality of the coming spring.
If you’re an English language learner, don’t miss the vocabulary exercise found below! (Answer key available.)
A snowy path for squirrel and fox,It winds between the wintry firs.
Snow-muffled are its iron rocks,
And o'er its stillness nothing stirs.
But low, bend low a listening ear!
Beneath the mask of moveless white
A babbling whisper you shall hear—
Of birds and blossoms, leaves and light.
VOCABULARY EXERCISE
Match the following words from the poem with the definitions:
WIND (v.) | FIR (n.) | MUFFLED (adj.) | BABBLE (v.) | BLOSSOM (n.)
- wrapped up, enveloped
- to make the low, continuous noise of water flowing over stones
- a small flower on a tree or plant
- an evergreen tree with leaves like needles
- to have many twists and bends
To check your answers, please click here.
ADDITIONAL LINKS
Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts (The Canadian Encyclopedia)
E-book versions of C. G. D. Roberts’ works (Project Gutenberg)
NOTES
I’m a freelance language tutor (English, Latin, Classical Greek), researcher, and a literary scholar currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.
If you wish to receive new content from my blog – as soon as it’s published – please enter your email address in the box below. You can also subscribe to my free monthly Newsletter and get a regular recap with additional content.
To support my work, you can send me a donation via PayPal. It would be greatly appreciated!
COVER IMAGE CREDIT
Photo by Richard Wang via Unsplash
#Canada #CanadianLiterature #CharlesGeorgeDouglasRoberts #English #EnglishVocabulary #February #learningEnglish #literature #nature #poem #poetry #readingSkills #winter
#TodayILearned - abhorrent: inspiring disgust and loathing; repugnant. "racism was abhorrent to us all"
In the latest blog post I'm doing a short explainer on these deceptively similar words:
* part
* a part
* apart
Not sure what the difference between them is? Visit https://grammaticus.blog/2026/02/05/part-a-part-apart/
Confusing words: Part, a part, apart
Here’s another English-language vocabulary post, inspired by something that came up in a recent conversation with a student. This time I’ll be doing a short explainer on the differences between these deceptively similar words:
- part
- a part
- apart
PART vs A PART
The word ‘part’ can be used as a verb (do look up its meanings), but here we’re interested in the noun. First, it can be uncountable, meaning ‘some but not all of a thing’. It’s important to remember that this ‘part’ is an inseparable piece of the whole:
Part of my homework was very difficult.
Part of the problem is that you aren’t studying hard enough.
Stress is just part of the job.
If used as a countable noun – with the indefinite article ‘a’ when used in the singular – the meaning is not quite the same: ‘a part’ is a separate or separable part of a larger whole.
Sometimes this difference in meaning is really not that important at all, but using ‘a part’ will simply put more emphasis on that individual element:
The chip is a part of the mobile phone. [It’s an individual piece, removable and separable from the rest of the phone as a whole.]
Bad team work played a part in my decision to quit my job. [Implying there were also other reasons, entirely separate from this specific one.]
APART
Now, unlike the difference between ‘part’ and ‘a part’ which is quite small, you need to be careful with ‘apart.’ This word can be an adverb meaning ‘at a little distance’ (in either time or space), or an adjective meaning ‘separated, divided.’
He was standing apart from us. [at a small distance]
Our houses are 2 kilometers apart. [away from each other]
‘Apart’ has additional meanings, which you can check out by clicking on the links found below.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Difference between part and apart (a StackExchange forum)
Apart (entry in the MerriamWebster Dictionary)
Apart vs. a Part: What’s the Difference? (a QuillBot article)
NOTES
I’m a freelance language tutor (English, Latin, Classical Greek), researcher, and a literary scholar currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.
If you wish to receive new content from my blog – as soon as it’s published – please enter your email address in the box below. You can also subscribe to my free monthly Newsletter and get a regular recap with additional content.
To support my work, you can send me a donation via PayPal. It would be greatly appreciated!
#English #EnglishTeacher #EnglishVocabulary #learningEnglish
Terry WallworkWhat is the Japanese cheesecake yoghurt trend?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zmxsmbk
#Japanese #English #英語 #LearningEnglish
#LearningJapanese #Japan #JapaneseCulture
Right from the beginning, the author creates a dark and gloomy atmosphere of a harsh winter’s night. The spell she is seemingly under is a “tyrant” that completely paralyzes her. Yet at the same time, there’s something resilient about the poet...
Visit the Grammaticus blog today and delve into Emily Brontë's poem "Spellbound:"
https://grammaticus.blog/2026/01/14/spellbound-by-emily-bronte/
#englishliterature #learningenglish #englishteacher #poem #poetry #emilybronte #winter
“Spellbound” by Emily Brontë
Emily Brontë (1818-1848), best known as the author of Wuthering Heights, was also a prolific poet, with around 200 works attributed to her. Sadly, they weren’t much appreciated during her lifetime, as is often the case, but nowadays — along with her sisters — she is considered a classic of English literature.
Emily BrontëIn this post we’ll get acquainted with her poem titled “Spellbound.” The word itself implies something magical and fascinating — something that literally binds you like a spell; you can’t think about anything else. But as we’re about to see, that’s not necessarily a good feeling!
Right from the beginning, the author creates a dark and gloomy atmosphere of a harsh winter’s night. The spell she is seemingly under is a “tyrant” that completely paralyzes her. You’ll notice how all three stanzas finish in the same, helpless way: “I cannot go.” Yet at the same time, there’s something resilient about the poet: as desperate as the situation may seem, and with everything going from bad to worse, she remains stoic and unmoved.
If you’ve ever felt trapped, unable to act, feeling oppressed as if by an unseen force — or a sense of inescapable doom, you might find this poem relatable!
The night is darkening round me,The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.
The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.
Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing drear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.
VOCABULARY EXERCISE
Find the words in the poem with the following meaning:
- gloom, sadness, melancholy (adjective)
- to begin to occur; of a situation: to quickly develop (verb)
- barren, desolate land (noun)
- to tie tightly (verb)
- a main branch of a tree (noun)
To check your answers, please click here.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Emily Brontë biographical entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica
Emily Brontë’s portraits in the National Portrait Gallery
NOTES
I’m a freelance language tutor (English, Latin, Classical Greek), researcher, and a literary scholar currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.
If you wish to receive new content from my blog – as soon as it’s published – please enter your email address in the box below. You can also subscribe to my free monthly Newsletter and get a regular recap with additional content.
To support my work, you can send me a donation via PayPal. It would be greatly appreciated!
COVER PHOTO CREDIT
Image by Maddy Weiss via Unsplash.
#EmilyBrontë #EnglishLiterature #EnglishVocabulary #learningEnglish #literature #poem #poetry #readingComprehension #readingSkills #winter
