A Song for the Passival Voice

Cast off the chains

Of custom and commerce

Step into Blake’s world

Of energy and delight

Where the house is abuilding

The song keeps on singing

The gift is what’s giving

Over and over again

Not doers and makers

Not sellers or takers

But humanity living

In the way of vobiscum

With all flora and fauna

And rerum as well united as one

Neither subject nor object

Nor by grammar possessed

But of the natural order and

All equally blessed

*  *  *  *  *  *

This poem is the happy accident of a little Internet searching. This morning I came across a Wikipedia entry that described a verb case, called the passival voice, which was considered proper grammatical usage in English up through the early 19th century.  The passival is defined as an intermediate case between the active and passive voice.  Sorry to all you grammarians if I have misused terminology - you can read the wikipedia entry here.  In any case, it strikes me as a real pity we have lost touch with the passival voice as it comes closer to capturing the way of the natural world.