Waterstone’s: A rally cry.
In London, Kensington, young Waterstone,
It would appear, sold out to a stranger,
So punctuation is now in danger;
Waterstones, now writ, lowering the tone.
Grammatically unsound you say, but hark!
Printed books or wet garden stones for pools?
Or are apostrophes for older fools,
We ancient pedants who insist and bark?
No, war it is and we are right to fear
The loss of this small mark, by which we own
Still our proud language, although loud we moan.
Standards will not slip despite those who jeer.
Save the apostrophe I hear you cry,
In this small mark all we possess must lie.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Nice one, Ara.
It’s incredible to think that this small mark, ‘ , was given such a fancy name. Apostrophe is too good a word to waste on this minor brush stroke. ‘ should be called a grocite or something.
Thanks, JW. It quite an insignificant little mark, but I do think it can make quite a difference.
For such a tiddler, it does seem to cause an enormous amount of confusion though. 🙂
And warfare, Ara. I’ve lost count of the amount of times the pedants have revolted. 🙂
Aha, we pedants.
Actually, when I first published this post, I had typed “pendants” but luckily Eagle Eyes spotted it, and I changed it to avoid incoming. 😉
You should have stuck to your guns and exacerbated (hark at me) it by saying
“We ancient pendant’s…”
… and thereby hangs a tale.
Very punny, Bearsy. 😉
It’s the tadpole of literature.
Ara – superb craftsmanship; most enjoyable.
Thank you, PapaG.
I have to admit, I do find sonnets a bit of a challenge. The iambic pentameter does not seem to me to be a natural rhythm although Shakespeare found it so.