You’ve read enough of my writing here, dear heart, to know that one of the things I like to do is disregard conventional grammar for effect occasionally, most commonly leaving out the subject of the sentence. I like it and it serves my purposes, but.... I have some guilt about contributing in my small way to the general lowering of standards.

The way I make my peace with it is my belief that English is a living, breathing thing. It changes constantly and will be what it will be, my posts with wonky grammar notwithstanding. Maybe the best analogy is that I think English is the ocean into which we toss our little stones. It can take it.

I like this post. At a minimum, it sparked an interesting conversation about the modern writer’s relationship to Vocabulary, capital V. But more than that, it explored one of the masters you suggest we read. Well done. By shining a light on his effective use of a richer vocabulary, you are throwing a very pretty sort of stone into the sea.