Diagramming Sentences

Too much of sentence-diagramming in English books is picky rules about how to write it. Do we underline the subject once and the predicate twice? Which words have a box around them and which are circled? Different texts have different conventions, and none of it matters! What's important is that the person knows what the main sentence is, and what phrases/clauses modify what. And that part is VERY important!

One hymn recently threw me for a loop. Pastor and Kantor took a shine to "O Savior of Our Fallen Race" and I think we sang it about ten times in the last six weeks. The first time through, I couldn't figure out what one antecedent was. And the meaning of that pronoun was hidden well enough that I couldn't figure it out as I was singing. Of course, I forgot after church to take a good careful look at the hymn. And then we sang it again a week or so later, and I still didn't know what I was singing. (It drives me NUTS when I don't know what I'm singing!!) When I sat down to figure it out, I thought this stanza was a prime example of why people need to be able to diagram sentences.

Today, as year by year its light
bathes all the world in radiance bright,
one precious truth outshines the sun:
salvation comes from You alone. Alleluia! (LSB 403:4)

What's light? Whose light? What is IT?

Today one truth outshines the sun. Basic adverb, subject, verb, direct object.
Year by year tells when this bathing is happening. So the picture ends up being that one truth (salvation is of Christ alone) outshines the sun as the light of that truth bathes the world in radiance.

Sometimes the sentences can get pretty convoluted in the poetry of hymns. It's easy when once you look at it and figure it out. But when I'm faced with a new one, sometimes I get a fresh look at how important it is to pay attention to the punctuation in a hymn and what the main subject/verb are.