as much use of suggestion as you can: (1) a town seen from a distance, (2) the swift approach of rain (seen some way off and blown towards you by the wind), (3) the tossing of tree-tops in a violent wind storm, (4) a wagon clattering by on a stone pavement, (5) the branches of an oak, (6) the branches of a "weeping willow," (7) the color of some flower, (8) the distinguishing trait of some animal, (9) the shadow of a moving cloud, (10) the indications of coming snow or rain. Add to this list other similar topics. SECTION 76 The Value of the Specific A description, if it is to be clear and vivid, must be specific. The details, whether few or many, must be specific, and the words naming the details must likewise be specific. This is easily illustrated. Take any bit of effective description, turn its details and diction into general terms, and note how much of the moving power of the description is lost. Take, for example, this descriptive sentence, quoted in the last section: He rode towards Tibur, under the early sunshine; the marble of its villas glistening all the way before him on the hillside. Now, translate the sentence into general terms: He went towards the town, in the early morning; the stone of its buildings shining all the way before him on the height. "Went," "the town," "early morning," "shining," and "height" are more general than "rode," "Tibur," "early sunshine," "marble," "glistening," and "hillside,” and, because they are general, fail utterly to stir the imagination of the reader. The way to get specific details into a description is to write with "the eye on the object," and the way to get 1 Even in fiction it is well to base the description on actual persons, objects, and scenes. specific diction into a description is to hunt for the apt and specific word until it is found. Though each word in a description should tell, the adjectives, the nouns, and even the verbs, because of their very prominence, demand more than ordinary care in their choice. Frequently enough, as has been suggested before this, a few wellchosen words will take the place of a whole page of careless description, of description, that is, in which words are used to avoid the trouble of seeing and picturing the thing described as it really is.1 Exercise 90 1. Point out the specific words in three of the selections in Exercise 87. 2. Make a list of the nouns in two of the selections in Exercise 87. Make a list of the adjectives in the same selections. Make a list of the verbs. Underscore the specific words in the three lists. Are there any specific words in the selections which are not nouns, adjectives, or verbs? 3. Do you find details in any of the selections which indicate that the author wrote with his "eye on the object" he described? Any details which indicate that the author did not write with his "eye on the object"? 4. Examine the specific element in several of your own descriptions. Do you find a chance for improvement? 5. Write one of the descriptions suggested in Exercise 92, putting into the description as much of the specific as you can. SECTION 77 Sensations Other than of Sight Up to this point description has been treated mainly as if it were a sort of word instrument to record sensations 1 Read Section 47 again; also see Exercises 78-80 (Helps to Study). of sight only, but description-and the art of word. description has here some advantage over the art of painting can suggest sensations of hearing, of touch, of smell, and even of taste. In other words, description covers, more or less effectively, the whole range of a man's sensations, and the power of any one person to describe his sensations is measured, putting aside the limitation inherent in words as a means of expression, by the sharpness of his senses and his power over words. Observe how sensations other than of sight are suggested in the following descriptions; as, of hearing: His room was on the north side of the street, and the morning sun shone in his window, as he lay back in the chair, grateful for its warmth. A heavy cart lumbered along slowly over the worn and irregular pavement; it came to a stand at the corner, and a gang of workmen swiftly emptied it of the steel rails it contained, dropping them on the sidewalk one by one with a loud clang which reverberated harshly far down the street. From the little knot of men who were relaying the horse-car track came cries of command, and then a rail would drop into position, and be spiked swiftly to its place. Then the laborers would draw aside while an arrested horse-car urged forward again, with the regular footfall of its one horse, as audible above the mighty roar of the metropolis as the jingle of the little bell on the horse's collar. At last there came from over the house-tops a loud whistle of escaping steam, followed shortly by a dozen similar signals, proclaiming the midday rest. A rail or two more clanged down on the others, and then the cart rumbled away. The workmen relaying the track had already seated themselves on the curb to eat their dinner, while one of them had gone to the saloon at 1 Silence, as well as sound, can be suggested. In this connection, examine the paragraph beginning with "The silence of the night," etc. (Exercise 82), and the last two stanzas of "Mariana" (Section 73). Tiny noises. the buzz of a fly, the squeak of a mouse, the ticking of a clock, the step of a fox-and the straining of the ear to catch the slightest sound are among the means used to suggest silence. Χ the corner for a large can of the new beer advertised in the window by the gaudy lithograph of a frisky young goat bearing a plump young goddess on his back. -BRANDER MATTHEWS, Vignettes of Manhattan. of touch: I found Uriah [Heep] reading a great fat book, with such demonstrative attention, that his lank forefinger followed up every line as he head, and made clammy tracks along the page (or so I fully believed) like a snail. . . . It was no fancy of mine about his hands, I observed; for he frequently ground the palms against each other as if to squeeze them dry and warın, besides often wiping them, in a stealthy way, on his pocket-handkerchief. ... After shaking hands with me- his hand felt like a fish, in the dark- he opened the door into the street a very little, and crept out, and shut it, leaving me to grope my way back into the house; which cost me some trouble and a fall over his stool. - DICKENS, David Copperfield. of smell: Indeed, it required a nose both subtle and unprejudiced to understand and appreciate and thoroughly enjoy that Paris-[the Paris before the second empire] . . . There were whole streets — and these by no means the least fascinating and romantic — where the unwritten domestic records of every house were afloat in the air outside it—records not all savory or sweet, but always full of interest and charm! One knew at a sniff as one passed the porte cochère what kind of people lived behind and above; what they ate and what they drank, and what their trade was; whether they did their washing at home, and burned tallow or wax, and mixed chicory with their coffee, and were over-fond of Gruyère cheese—the biggest, cheapest, plainest, and most formidable cheese in the world; whether they fried with oil or butter, and liked their omelets overdone and garlic in their salad, and sipped black-currant brandy or anisette as a liqueur; and were overrun with mice, and used cats or mouse-traps to get rid of them, or neither; and bought violets, or pinks, or gillyflowers in season, and kept them too long; and fasted on Friday with red or white beans, or lentils, or had a dispensation from the Pope- or, - haply, even dispensed with the Pope's dispensation. GEORGE DU MAURIER, Peter Ibbetson.1 of taste: And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep, These delicates he heap'd with glowing hand Filling the chilly room with perfume light. - KEATS, The Eve of St. Agnes. Exercise 91 1. Find at least three passages describing sensations other than of sight. 2. Study the descriptive selections in this book to determine how much of them is given up to sensations of sight. 3. Write a description, dealing with some other sensation than of sight. Exercise 92 EXERCISES IN DESCRIPTION 1. Describe your school building for some boy or girl who expects to enter as a student, but who has never seen the building. 2. Describe a dwelling-house for a family who think of moving. 3. Describe a country road on a rainy night, with horse and carriage coming towards you from a distance. 4. Describe the crowd in a large department store on bargain day. 1 Look up the paragraphs that follow this last paragraph. |