Composition-Rhetoric Part 5

2. _p.r.o.nunciation._ The complete acquisition of a word includes its p.r.o.nunciation. In reading aloud and in speaking, we have need to know it, and faulty p.r.o.nunciation is considered an indication of lack of culture.

3. _Meaning._ This includes more than the ability to give the definition as found in the dictionary. It is possible to recite such definitions glibly without in reality knowing the meaning of the word defined. It is necessary to connect the word definitely and permanently in our mind with the idea for which it is the symbol and to be able to distinguish the idea clearly from others closely related to it.

4. _Use._ The actual use of a word is very important. If a word is to come into our speaking and writing vocabulary, we must use it. It is important that the spelling, p.r.o.nunciation, and meaning be determined when you _first_ meet the word, and it is equally important that the word be _used_ soon and often.

+Theme XI.+--_Write a short story suggested by one of the following subjects. It may be wholly improbable, if you choose._

1. The good fairy.

2. Mary's luck.

3. The man in the moon.

4. The golden apple.

5. A wonderful fountain pen.

6. The goobergoo and the kantan.

(Correct with reference to meaning and clearness and two other points to be a.s.signed by the teacher.)

SUMMARY

1. The clear expression of the ideas connected with our daily experiences is of greater importance to most of us than is the production of literature.

2. Ideas furnished by imagination may be advantageously used for composition purposes, because-- _a._ They are your own.

_b._ They offer free choice of language.

They are less desirable than those gained from experience, because-- _a._ They generally lack clearness and permanency.

_b._ They are less likely to be worth recording.

_c._ It is more difficult to give them that unity and directness of statement that will keep the interest of the reader.

3. An imaginative series of events may seem probable or improbable. He who most closely observes real life and states his imaginary events so that they seem real will succeed best in imaginative writing.

4. Euphony is a desirable quality in a composition.

5. Variety aids euphony. It is gained by-- _a._ Avoiding the repet.i.tion of the same words and phrases.

_b._ Beginning our sentences in various ways.

_c._ Using sentences of different lengths.

6. Conversation is usually composed of short sentences.

7. Pictures may suggest ideas suitable for use in compositions.

8. Our reading, writing, and speaking vocabularies differ.

Each should be increased. With each new word attention should be given to-- _a._ Spelling.

_b._ p.r.o.nunciation.

_c._ Meaning.

_d._ Use.

III. EXPRESSION OF IDEAS ACQUIRED THROUGH LANGUAGE

+25. Language as a Medium through Which Ideas are Acquired.+--We have been considering language as a means of expression, an instrument by which we can convey to others the ideas which come to us from experience and imagination. We shall now consider it from a different point of view.

Language is not merely a means of expressing ideas, but it is also a medium through which ideas are acquired. It has a double use: the writer must put thought into language; the reader must get it out. A large part of your schooling has been devoted to acquiring ideas from language, and these ideas may be used for purposes of composition. _Since it is absolutely necessary to have ideas before you can express them_, it will be worth while to consider for a time how to get them from language.

+26. Image Making.+--Read the following selection from Hawthorne and form a clear mental image of each scene:--

At first, my fancy saw only the stern hills, lonely lakes, and venerable woods. Not a tree, since their seeds were first scattered over the infant soil, had felt the ax, but had grown up and flourished through its long generation, had fallen beneath the weight of years, been buried in green moss, and nourished the roots of others as gigantic. Hark! A light paddle dips into the lake, a birch canoe glides around the point, and an Indian chief has pa.s.sed, painted and feather-crested, armed with a bow of hickory, a stone tomahawk, and flint-headed arrows. But the ripple had hardly vanished from the water, when a white flag caught the breeze, over a castle in the wilderness, with frowning ramparts and a hundred cannon.... A war party of French and Indians were issuing from the gate to lay waste some village of New England. Near the fortress there was a group of dancers. The merry soldiers footing it with the swart savage maids; deeper in the wood, some red men were growing frantic around a keg of the fire-water; and elsewhere a Jesuit preached the faith of high cathedrals beneath a canopy of forest boughs.

Did you form clear mental images? Can you picture them all at the same time, or must you turn your attention from one image to another? The formation of the proper mental images will be aided by making a persistent effort to create them.

Many words do not cause us to form images; for example, _goodness, innocence, position, insurance_; but when the purpose of a word is to set forth an image, we should take care to get the correct one. In this the dictionary will not always help us. We must distinguish between the ability to repeat a definition and the power to form an accurate image of the thing defined. The difficulty of forming correct images by the use of dictionary definitions is so great that the definitions are frequently accompanied by pictures.

EXERCISES

Notice the different mental images that come to you as you read each of the following selections. Distinguish words that cause images to arise from those that do not.

1. Before these fields were shorn and tilled, Full to the brim our rivers flowed; The melody of waters filled The fresh and boundless wood; And torrents dashed, and rivulets played, And fountains spouted in the shade.

--Bryant: _An Indian at the Burial Place of his Fathers_.

2. At that moment the woods were filled with another burst of cries, and at the signal four savages sprang from the cover of the driftwood. Heyward felt a burning desire to rush forward to meet them, so intense was the delirious anxiety of the moment; but he was restrained by the deliberate examples of the scout and Uncas. When their foes, who leaped over the black rocks that divided them, with long bounds, uttering the wildest yells, were within a few rods, the rifle of Hawkeye slowly rose among the shrubs and poured out its fatal contents. The foremost Indian bounded like a stricken deer and fell headlong among the clefts of the island.

--Cooper: _Last of the Mohicans_.

3. The towering flames had now surmounted every obstruction, and rose to the evening skies, one huge and burning beacon, seen far and wide through the adjacent country. Tower after tower crashed down, with blazing roof and rafter; and the combatants were driven from the courtyard. The vanquished of whom very few remained, scattered and escaped into the neighboring wood. The victors, a.s.sembling in large bands, gazed with wonder, not unmixed with fear, upon the flames, in which their own ranks and arms glanced dusky red. The maniac figure of the Saxon Ulrica was for a long time visible on the lofty stand she had chosen, tossing her arms abroad with wild exaltation as if she reigned empress of the conflagration which she had raised. At length, with a terrific crash, the whole turret gave way and she perished in the flames which had consumed her tyrant.

--Scott: _Ivanhoe_.

4. Under a spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands; The smith, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands; And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands.

--Longfellow: _The Village Blacksmith_.

5. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-- While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door; "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-- Only this, and nothing more."

--Edgar A. Poe: _The Raven_.

6. Where with black cliffs the torrents toil, He watch'd the wheeling eddies boil, Till, from their foam, his dazzled eyes Beheld the River Demon rise; The mountain mist took form and limb Of noontide hag or goblin grim.