Part 60 (1/2)

We have indicated elsewhere that this sentence work may follow Lesson 40.

+The Narrative+.--This selection from ”Helen's Babies” is a story and therefore a narrative. But there are some descriptive touches in it. All stories must have such touches. Perhaps it is not always essential to distinguish between narration and description, but it is worth your while to do it occasionally. Try to point out the descriptive parts in these paragraphs. You certainly can find a descriptive sentence in the first paragraph, and descriptive words, phrases, and clauses throughout the selection. What help to the narrative do these descriptive touches give?

+The Paragraphs+.--What have you learned about the sentences that make up one paragraph? Are the paragraphs more, or less, closely related than the sentences of each paragraph? Why? Examine these paragraphs and see whether any sentences can be changed from one paragraph to another. If you think they can, give your reason. Is the order of these paragraphs the right one?

Can the order anywhere be changed without throwing the story out of joint?

Why?

+The General Topic and the Sub-topics+.--We shall find that every composition has its general subject and that each paragraph in the composition bus its own particular subject. Let us call the subject of the whole composition the _general topic_. _Sub_ means _under_, and so let us call the point which each paragraph develops a _sub-topic_. In the story above we may find some such outline as the following:--

AN EXCURSION IN SEARCH OF ”JACKS.”

1. The Place where Jacks Grow.

2. The Mishap to the Excursionists.

3. The Uncle Takes his Seriously.

4. His Attempt at Repairs.

Do you think that such a _framework_ helps a writer to tell his story? Do you not think that each sub-topic must suggest some thoughts that the general topic alone would not suggest? If you keep clearly before you the sub-topic of your paragraph, what effect do you think it will have on the thoughts and the sentences of that paragraph? With a good framework clearly before you, must not your story move along in an orderly way from a beginning to an end? Have you ever heard stories badly told? If so, what were the faults?

ORIGINAL COMPOSITION.

Have you not had some experience that you can work up into a good story? If you have, tell the story upon paper, making use of the instruction we have given you in our talk above.

+To the Teacher+.--Perhaps a reproduction of the story above may be profitable.

EXERCISES ON THE COMPOSITION OF THE SENTENCE AND THE PARAGRAPH.

SELECTION FROM GEORGE ELIOT.

And this is Dovecote Mill. I must stand a minute or two here on the bridge and look at it, though the clouds are threatening and it is far on in the afternoon. Even in this leafless time of departing February, it is pleasant to look at it. Perhaps the chill, damp season adds a charm to the trimly-kept building, as old as the elms and chestnuts that shelter it from the northern blast.

The stream is brimful now, and half drowns the gra.s.sy fringe in front of the house. As I look at the stream, the vivid gra.s.s, the delicate, bright green softening the outline of the great trunks and branches that gleam from under the bare purple boughs, I am in love with moistness, and envy the white ducks that are dipping their heads far into the water, unmindful of the awkward appearance in the drier world above.

1. And now there is the huge covered wagon, coming home with sacks of grain. 2. That honest wagoner is thinking of his dinner, which is getting sadly dry in the oven at this late hour; but he will not touch it till he has fed his horses--the strong, submissive beasts, who, I fancy, are looking mild reproach at him from between their blinkers, that he should crack his whip at them in that awful manner, as if they needed such a hint!

3. See how they stretch their shoulders up the slope toward the bridge, with all the more energy because they are so near home. 4. Look at their grand, s.h.a.ggy feet, that seem to grasp the firm earth, at the patient strength of their necks bowed under the heavy collar, at the mighty muscles of their struggling haunches. 5. I should like to see them, with their moist necks freed from the harness, dipping their eager nostrils into the pond.

+The Uses of Words and Groups of Words+.--Notice that in sentence 1, third paragraph, the subject is placed after the predicate. Tell what _now_ and _there_ do. _Coming home with sacks of grain_ does what? Does _coming_ express action? Does it a.s.sert action? What is it? What does _home_ do? Put _its_ before _home_ and then read the whole phrase. What other change do you find necessary? A noun is sometimes used alone to do the work of an adverb phrase, the preposition being omitted. What is the office of _minute_ in the second sentence of the first paragraph? What preposition could be put in? In 2, third paragraph, the p.r.o.noun _which_ stands for _dinner_. Read the sentence, using the noun instead of the p.r.o.noun. Have you now two sentences, or one? You see that _which_ not only stands for _dinner_, but it joins on a sentence so as to make it describe the dinner.

What does _till he has fed his horses_ do? Omitting _till_, would this group of words be a sentence? What, then, joins this group, and makes it do the work of an adverb? Notice the dash after _horses_. The writer here breaks off rather suddenly and begins again, using _beasts_ instead of _horses_. To _beasts_ are added many descriptive words. You will learn that this noun _beasts_ added to the noun _horses_ is called an explanatory modifier. Notice that _I fancy_ is thrown in loosely or independently and is set off by commas. All the other words beginning with _who_ and ending with _hint_ are joined by _who_ to _beasts_. Notice that the writer makes these beasts think like persons, and so uses _who_ instead of _which_ or _that_. Do we ordinarily speak of looking anything? In _who are looking reproach_, what is the object complement of _are looking_? What long group of words made up of two sentences tells why the beasts are looking reproach? Read separately the main divisions of 2. What conjunction connects these? Is one of these divisions itself divided into parts by commas? Should, then, some mark of wider separation be put between the main divisions of 2? To build so long a sentence as 2 is venturesome. We advise young writers not to make such attempts. It is hard to write very long sentences and keep the meaning clear. In 3 the subject of _see_ is _you_, which is generally omitted in a command. You are here told to see what?

Break this long object complement up into two sentences. What do the horses stretch? Where do they stretch their shoulders? How do they stretch? Why do they stretch with more energy? What is the subject of _look_ in 4? The phrase beginning with _at_ and ending with _earth_ does what? Find two other long phrases introduced by _at_ and tell what they do. _That seem to grasp the firm earth_ goes with what? Put the noun _feet_ in place of the p.r.o.noun _that_ and make a separate sentence of this group. What word, then, makes an adjective modifier of this sentence and joins it to _feet_? Does _to grasp_ a.s.sert action? What do you call it? It is here used as attribute complement. _Bowed under the heavy collar_ describes what? Does _bowed_ a.s.sert action? What do you call it?

+To the Teacher+.--If time permits, we believe that such exercises as the above may profitably be continued. This sentence work may perhaps best follow Lesson 50. See suggestions with preceding exercises.

+Descriptive Writing+.--This extract from the novelist who called herself ”George Eliot” we have slightly changed for our purpose. It is purely +descriptive+. It is a painting in words--a vivid picture of a very pretty scene. How grateful we are to those who can, as it were, turn a page of a book into canvas, and paint on it a rich verbal picture that delights us every time we read it or recall it! How many such pictures there are in our libraries! And how little they cost us when compared with those that we buy and hang upon our walls!

+Some Features of a Good Description+.--Does this author mention many features of the mill, of the stream, and of the horses pulling their load over the bridge? Do those that she does mention suggest to you everything else? Name some of the things suggested to you but not mentioned in this description. Does not some of the charm of a description lie in the reader's having something left him to supply? If the author had given you every little detail of the mill, the stream, and the laboring horses, would not the description have been dull and tiresome? What things that the author imagined but did not really see are mentioned in the third paragraph? Do these touches of fancy or imagination help the picture? Do they show that the author was in love with her work? and do they therefore stimulate your fancy or imagination?