The breakers were right beneath her bows, she drifted a dreary wreck, And a whooping billow swept the crew like icicles from her deck. She struck where the white and fleecy waves look'd soft as carded wool, But the cruel rocks, they gored her side like the horns of an angry bull. Her rattling shrouds, all sheath'd in ice, with the masts went by the board; Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank. Ho! ho! the breakers roar'd! At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach, a fisherman stood aghast, The salt sea was frozen on her breast, the salt tears in her eyes; And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed, on the billows fall and rise. Such was the wreck of the Hesperus, in the midnight and the snow! Christ save us all from a death like this, on the reef of Norman's Woe! -Longfellow. LESSON IV I. Clearness in the Expression of Ideas by means of Length of Sentence. 1. The sentences of a composition should not be too long or too short. They should express the complete thought; nothing more, nothing less. Exercise 1. The first of the compositions that follow gives an example of long sentences, the second, of short sentences. Only skilful writers could use such sentences successfully. Read the sentences carefully, and decide for yourselves what makes them clear in spite of their length. The Americans will have no interest contrary to the grandeur and glory of England, when they are not oppressed by the weight of it; and they will rather be inclined to resp ect the acts of a superintending legislature, when they see them the acts of that power which is itself the security, not the rival, of their secondary importance. In this assurance my mind most perfectly acquiesces; and I confess I feel not the least alarm from the discontents which are to arise from putting people at their ease; nor do I apprehend the destruction of this empire from giving, by an act of free grace and indulgence, to two millions of my fellow-citizens, some share of those rights upon which I have always been taught to value myself.-Burke: Conciliation with America. 2. THE ALTERNATIVE The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. It is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough. It is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but submission and slavery! Our chains are forged; their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable-and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come! It is in vain, sir, to extenuate matters. Gentlemen may cry Peace, Peace-but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that the gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! -Patrick Henry: Speech in The Virginia Convention, 1779. Exercise 2. The ideas in the following composition are broken up into short sentences. Rewrite the composition so that the sentence shall contain complete thoughts. In front of the cottage was a group of scrub-oaks. In the oaks the birds sang. They sang all day long. The squirrels chattered in them. A swing hung from one of the branches. Here Mary loved to swing. She loved to feel the soft breezes on her cheeks. Through the leaves of the oaks she could see the clouds. They were slowly sailing. They reminded her of the white sails of the yachts. The yachts were in the harbor. She used to dream that they were fairy yachts. She used to dream that they were coming. She dreamed that they were coming to bear her away to fairy land. The days were too short for all her dreams. 2. Clearness obtained by revision. A good plan to follow is to write whatever comes into the mind on a certain subject as carefully and thoughtfully as may be, and then to revise the work before making a final copy. In such revision we should see that the thought in each sentence is complete, that there is no more than one com plete thought in each sentence, and that each sentence is sharply defined by capital and end-mark. II. Expression of Ideas in Composition. Read the following compositions aloud: 1. A November mist overspread the little valley, up which slowly but steadily rode the monk Eustace. He was not insensible to the feeling of melancholy inspired by the scene and by the season. The stream seemed to murmur with a deep and oppressed note, as if bewailing the departure of autumn. Among the scattered copses which here and there fringed its banks, the oak trees only retained that pallid green that precedes their russet hue. The leaves of the willows were most of them stripped from the branches, lay rustling at each breath and disturbed by every step of the mule; while the foliage of other trees, totally withered, kept still precarious possession of the boughs, waiting the first wind to scatter them. -Scott: The Monastery. 2. This is a glorious day,-bright, very warm, yet with an unspeakable gentleness both in its warmth and brightness. On such days it is impossible not to love Nature, for she evidently loves us. At other seasons she does not give me this impression, or only at very rare intervals; but in these happy, autumnal days, when she has perfected the harvests, and accomplished every necessary thing that she had to do, she overflows with a blessed superfluity of love. It is good to be alive now. Thank God for breath,-yes, for mere breath! when it is made up of such a heavenly breeze as this.-Hawthorne: American Note Books. 3. The country is delightful; the fresh-looking wooded mountains never grow monotonous. Their shape constantly varies; there is a new aspect every quarter of an hour. They seem to me ever alive, presenting here a chest and there a spine, prone or upright, grave and noble in appearance.-Taine: Journeys through France. Class discussion. 1. In each of the compositions given above, there is one word which furnishes the mood or atmosphere. Find the word in each composition. 2. What details emphasize the mood in each case? 3. Find other words for bewailing, pallid, precarious. 4. What is the force of the expression in the last composition, "here a chest and there a spine"? Subjects for written composition. Choose from the following a subject that is in season:1. It is a dismal day in November (or any other month). 2. The first snow-storm has come, and a wonderful transformation has taken place. 3. The fields after harvest present a forlorn appearance. 4. It is a delightful day in June (or any other month). 5. From my piazza (or window) I get an attractive view. Subjects for oral composition. Read the following poem through. mental picture of the poet's house. present the picture to the class. where you yourself were born. Study it to get a Describe it so as to Describe the house PAST AND PRESENT. I remember, I remember He never came a wink too soon |