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Stanley Fish

John Donne

One of the interesting books I've read recently is called How to Write a Sentence by Stanley Fish, who happens to be the professor who most inspired me as an undergraduate.  In this book, my former professor states, "A sentence is, in John Donne's words, 'a little world made cunningly.'"  Fish hopes that every reader will "come to share the delight and awe I feel when reading [great] sentences" and also that "you will be able to write some fine, if not great, sentences yourself."  Toward the end of the book, he states, again quoting Donne: "Time is an artificial breach in eternity (Donne calls it 'this imaginary half-nothing'), an imperfection that springs from the nature of an imperfect, finite, transitory creature.  The same imperfection and finitude require from us the writing of sentences (as opposed to the instantaneous knowledge of everything) [...]."

Little worlds made cunningly!  If we are lucky, this phrase describes our stories, our classrooms, our lives.  Let us proceed into the remaining four months of 2012 with the pledge to be cunning, and to work on our sentences.