In poetry, inversion is very common.
The direct order consists in placing: first, the subject, then the predicate, then the objects, direct and indirect; then the modifiers follow according to the importance they derive from the meaning of the sentence.
These ideas are after all so simple and clear that the child rarely has any difficulty in understanding them. Nevertheless, it is much easier to give the child a vivid impression of them by the permutation of parts than by explanation. This permutation is made very convenient by the sentences being printed in sections which may be moved about and combined at will. Just as the sequence of the various parts of speech was made clear by transposing the parts, here the same result can be accomplished by transposing the sections of the printed slip. Example:
| We | heard | the clatter | of the horse's hoofs |
| (subject) | (predicate) | (direct object) | (attribute) |
| on the pavement. | |||
| (place: adverb) | |||
The following combinations are possible results of permutation:
We—heard—the clatter—of the horse's hoofs—on the pavement.
We—the clatter—heard—on the pavement—of the horse's hoofs.
We—of the horse's hoofs—on the pavement—the clatter—heard.
Of the horse's hoofs—on the pavement—heard—the clatter—we, etc., etc.
Series VIII
(The inverted order)
The effect of direct and inverted order can be shown in every sentence. But it is better to try examples of inversion from poetic language. In this series, all the sentences show inversion of one type or another:
—Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
—Upon the roof we sat that night!
The noise of bells went sweeping by;
Awesome bells they were to me.
—Still sits the school-house by the road.
—Before them under the garden-wall
Forward and back
Went drearily singing the chore-girl small.
—And day by day more holy grew
Each spot of the sacred ground.
—There thronged the citizens with terror dumb.
Exercises on the putting together of sentence elements can lead to practise in the identification and use of grammatical forms as parts of speech, which the study of single words would not at first permit; as for instance, forms of the verbs used as nouns (infinitive and gerund as subject and object), the difference between personal pronouns used as direct or indirect objects, and so on.