It was my first-year Latin teacher in high school who made me who made me discover I'd fallen in love with it {grammar}. It took Latin to thrust me into bona fide alliance with words in their true meaning. Learning Latin fed my love for words upon words in continuation and modification, and the beautiful, sober, accretion of a sentence. I could see the achieved sentence finally standing there, as real, intact, and built to stay as the Mississippi State Capitol at the top of my street.
Eudora Welty reflects on her transformative experience with Latin during her first year of high school. Her teacher introduced her to the complexities and beauty of grammar, which sparked a deep love for language. Through learning Latin, she developed a genuine appreciation for the nuances of words, enhancing her understanding and creativity in writing.
Welty describes how this linguistic journey allowed her to build sentences with clarity and strength, akin to...