“The faster you run, the sooner you’re done…”
For some a prompting, for others a brake.
If traveling is better and getting there worse,
Then time is your taxi, the one that you'll take.

“The brisker your clip, the quicker your trip…”
A toppling awaiteth despite what you think.
Attend to the path, now swift with its bumps,
A challenge to passage for those who would blink.

“The more the medicine, the merrier the mode…”
Like else we've seen, not straight and true.
Too much a good thing a bad thing becomes,
Affecting adversely with dosage askew.

​

“As fit as a fiddle” is bit of a riddle,
This state we trippingly tout;
Violins in gyms are hardly seen;
So, what's this all about?

Though shapely, poised, and sweetly toned,
They never join a dance.
Athletic gigs they'll not explore,
Except to look askance.

‘Twas accident, that healthy fame;
No fault or shame, no blame.
So “fit for purpose” fiddle was,
Example it became.

Its suitability thus admired
Did not from “hearty” spring;
But now acclaimed, in every mind
A fiddle's a lively thing.

​

​Indefinite pronoun, in definite demand,
A stand-in for noun, a proxy in mask;
Too shy and plain to claim the name
Of person/thing behind its task.

“All,” “anyone,” “anybody,” “both,” and “each,”
Like “no one,” “many,” “nobody,” and “none”;
“Enough,” “somebody,” “someone,” “something,”
And “any,” or “either,” or “neither,” and “most.”

Along with “several” and “some” and “few”
Are “anything,” “much,” and ”nothing,” too;
With “everything,” “everybody,” “everyone,” true,
Indefinite pronouns shape the milieu.

They serve as plural, singular, both…
These shadowy aids of nouns in deed;
Not even the variable type will gloat,
Subdued instead like “none” when teed.

When “none” serves as an adverb (modifying a verb, adjective, adverb, or even a clause), its meaning is “not at all” or “to no extent.” In the role of a pronoun, however, it can signify several different things, all related to its origin as “not one.” But its ancestor, the Old English nan, had both singular and plural inflections, which makes modern usage very interesting.


Though “none” is more of naught than one,
It calls for all to count
The noun to which it points along
And know the right amount.

For those of us nontechnical,
No abacus to fear;
But meanings hypothetical
Are there to make it clear.

“Not one,” “no one,” “no person,” or
“No part of whole or group”
Will tell of subject singular
When “none” it dares to dupe.

But if not any's to take none's place,
It tells of plural count;
And often when a group “none” plays,
“Not any” may stick around.

So, “None of us do work today;
Yet none is drenched in tears.”
“The bosses plan to dock our pay,
But none of us is scared.”

To check if verb should plural be,
Just switch “not any” in.
If singular there you think you see,
Then test the other kin.

Remember, though, that overlap
Is not a seldom fling.
A plural subject is, perhaps,
The stage for singular thing.

So much will spring from what you mean 
And what the context is.
Intention must be clear and clean
For “none” dependencies.
​