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water and the land

insect is apparently not troubled about the brevity of its existence, and is wholly unconcerned with anything except ease and pleasure.

weather lay sleepily along the at hand; and there were rich meadows by Avon side, innumerable May-flies over and the green and gray flies the flickered with their graceful, adjacent. This species of lazy, up and down flight over the reeds and the water and the meadows, in myriads upon myriads. The May-flies must surely be the lotus-eaters of the ephemera- the happiest, laziest, carelessest fly that dances and dreams out his few hours of sunshiny life by English rivers.

Every little pitiful coarse All of the fish in the Avon fish in the Avon was on the were watching for the flies, alert for the flies, and gorging and each day ate a great his wretched carcass with many, perhaps a larger numhundreds daily, the glutton- ber than was necessary to ous rogues! and every lover satisfy hunger. A great of the gentle craft was out many fishermen were about. to avenge the poor May

flies.

-Tom Brown's School-days.

B. Write a letter to a distant friend describing a certain ride that you have taken. In the course of the letter use some words indicating motions, some indicating sounds, some indicating other sensations.

C. Compare the two versions that follow. Mark all of the image-making words and phrases.

1. The very gnarliest and 1. Even the most irrehardest of hearts has some sponsive person is in some musical strings in it. 2. But degree susceptible to the in

curring in various places in the poems of great writers, which make me feel that I and every other person, however humble, have a common

they are tuned differently in fluence of poetry. 2. But every one of us, so that the our susceptibilities are of difself-same strain, which wak- ferent kinds, so that a poem ens a thrill of sympathetic which affects one person a melody in one, may leave good deal, may affect another another quite silent and un- not at all. 3. For whatever touched. 3. For whatever II love, my delight amounts love, my delight amounts to to an extravagance. 4. There an extravagance. 4. There are verses which I cannot are verses which I cannot read without a strong feelread without tears of exul- ing of exultation, which to tation, which to others are others are merely indifferent. merely indifferent. 5. Those 5. Those simple passages ocsimple touches scattered here and there, by all great writers, which make me feel that I, and every most despised and outcast child of God that breathes, have a common humanity with those superior humanity with those glori- minds, arouse in me very ous spirits, overpower me. strong emotions. 6. Poetry 6. Poetry has a key which causes deeper feelings than unlocks some more inward are caused by anything else. cabinet of my nature than is 7. I cannot explain it or accessible to any other power. account for it, or say what 7. I cannot explain it or ac- faculty it affects. 8. The count for it, or say what stronger the feeling, the faculty it appeals to. 8. The harder it is to say what it is chord which vibrates strong- or whence it comes. 9. Often ly becomes blurred and in- the mere rhyme, the cadence visible in proportion to the and sound of the words, cause intensity of its impulse. this strange feeling in me. 9. Often the mere rhyme, the 10. Not only do all the hapcadence and sound of the py associations of my early

words, awaken this strange life, that were before sepa

feeling in me. 10. Not only do all the happy associations of my early life, that before lay scattered, take beautiful shapes, like iron dust at the approach of the magnet, but something dim and vague beyond these moves itself in me with the uncertain sound of a far-off sea. LOWELL: Conversations on some of the

Old Poets.

56.

rated in my mind, now come together in beautiful and symmetrical order, but I am conscious of something un- . defined and difficult of apprehension in addition to these.

Assignments on Kinds of Images.

A. Read attentively Gray's Elegy, or Burns's The Cotter's Saturday Night, or Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner, noticing all of the images. Classify the images.

B. In reading the following do you at any place experience a sensation of muscular strain, of holding on to keep from falling? What words produce this effect? Is there also a sight-image? Tell, orally, what you see.

1. The "little cliff" upon whose edge he had so carelessly thrown himself down to rest that the weightier portion of his body hung over it, while he was only kept from falling by the tenure of his elbow on its extreme and slippery edge this "little cliff" arose a sheer unobstructed precipice of black shining rock, some fifteen or sixteen hundred feet from the world of crags beneath us. In truth, so deeply was I excited by the perilous position of my companion, that I fell at full length upon the ground, clung to the shrubs around me, and dared not even glance upward at the skywhile I struggled in vain to divest myself of the idea that the very foundations of the mountain were in danger from

the fury of the winds. It was long before I could reason myself into sufficient courage to sit up and look out into the distance. POE: A Descent into the Maelstrom.

C. Describe a wrestling-match with a view to make us realize muscular strain.

D. Which of the following words suggest no image to you? Classify those that do suggest images, as sights, sounds, etc. Do any appeal to more than one sense?

Sugary, crawling, vale, serpentine, coo, musty, sticky, shiver, whistle, galling, slimy, oily, rattle, rancid, plunge, gabble, sirupy, ooze, glade, flaming, flags, smouldering, charnel-house, purplish, smudge, blotches, geranium, lilyof-the-valley, new-mown hay, crash, huzzas, farewell, experience, trembling, pallid, dejected, hilarious, browsing.

E. Describe the mental image suggested by any one of the preceding words.

F. In the following note especially the appeals to the senses of taste and smell. What image-words fail to give you the suggestion evidently desired by the writer? What other images are there here?

1. Grace having been said by the doctor, dinner began. There was some nice soup: also roast meat, boiled meat, vegetables, pie, and cheese.

2. The town of Portlossie lay above, still as a country hamlet, with more odors than people about; of people it was seldom, indeed, that three were to be spied at once in the wide street, while of odors you would always encounter a smell of leather from the saddler's shop, and a mingled message of bacon and cheese from the very general dealer's

in whose window hung what seemed three hams, and only he who looked twice would discover that the middle object was no ham, but a violin while at every corner lurked a

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scent of gilly flowers and southernwood. Idly supreme, Portlossie, the upper, looked down in condescension, that is in half-concealed contempt, on the ant-heap below it.

MACDONALD: Malcolm.

3. The smoky kitchen was high and spacious. The copper utensils and the crockery shone in the reflection of the hearth. A cat lay asleep on a chair, a dog under the table. One perceived an odor of milk, apples, smoke, that indescribable smell peculiar to old farm houses, the odor of the earth, of the walls, of furniture, the odor of spilled stale soup, of former washdays and of former inhabitants, the smell of animals and of human beings combined, of things and of persons, the odor of time, and of things that have passed away. MAUPASSANT: The Farmer's Wife.

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G. Describe a bakery shop, emphasizing the appeals to the sense of smell. Or describe a small railway waiting-room on a rainy morning at train time. Or describe a schoolroom in winter so as to emphasize the need of ventilation.

H. Note in the following the images of things in motion. What words especially give motion to the picture? What other images are there?

I can see the wonderful old lady now, as she was then, with her cape pinned awry, rocking her splint-bottom chair nervously while she talked.

-

EGGLESTON: The Hoosier Schoolmaster.

The home season of the herring-fishery was to commence. The little harbor was one crowd of stumpy masts, each with its halyard, the sole cordage visible, rove through the top of it, for the hoisting of a lug sail, tanned to a rich red brown. From this underwood towered aloft the masts of a coasting schooner, discharging its load of coal at the little quay. Other boats lay drawn up on the beach in front of the Seaton, and beyond it on the other side of the burn. Men and

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