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How do people feel about grammatically incorrect sentences within literature? For example, consider the following sentence.

How sad if we pass through life and never see it with the eyes of a child.

I was doing an online search of the most beautiful sentences in literature. I've noticed that many sentences that writers deem the most beautiful are grammatically incorrect. Elements of Style suggests that this is ok as long as the "emphasis is warranted" (Rule 1.6), but there seems to be so many. How do academics/writers feel about this?

Is it ok if writing is full of incomplete sentences?

I know the ultimate purpose of writing is about communication. So even if it's grammatically wrong, does it matter if the message is clear?

On the other hand, poor grammar does lead to confusion and misinterpretation. Many times, it's born of laziness. For these reasons, it's not something we should condone.

I'm trying to figure out how I should feel about this. How do most writers feel?

What should teachers tell their students when writing academic essays?

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  • "How do most writers feel?" defines the question as opinion. But, yes, occasional exceptions make the rule.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Nov 10, 2023 at 21:41
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    If the example exclamatory sentence isn't grammatical, that's grammar's fault, not the writer's.
    – Jack O'Flaherty
    Commented Nov 10, 2023 at 21:55
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    Elements of Style is not a good source. It's full of nonsense, so don't take its word on grammaticality. There's nothing wrong with the sentence.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Nov 10, 2023 at 22:59
  • There are characters in literature, you know, like Huckleberry Finn. BTW, ok is less common than OK, but neither one was okay two generations ago; but old rule makers retire and pass on…and the young ones cheer: 'Yay! That -ay ending was literally dragging me down; really tho, ugh.' And so it goes…
    – HippoSawrUs
    Commented Nov 11, 2023 at 4:14
  • See On what grounds does one determine the grammatical acceptability of a sentence fragment?.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Nov 11, 2023 at 13:03

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This may not be a real answer. But the sentence you cited isn't grammatically incorrect; it's a verbless exclamative clause (Huddleston & Pullum (2002), p. 921). It has the same syntactic structure as a sentence like "How fantastic!" or "What a delight!", except with a conditional added. In this construction, the subject is understood, and the verb to be is omitted; we understand it as "How sad it is if we pass through life and never see it with the eyes of a child."

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  • Thanks for letting me know! Great answer, even though it doesn't answer my main question. 😉
    – QuietInMontana
    Commented Nov 11, 2023 at 15:44

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