صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

I. VERY SOFT FORCE.

Very soft force is appropriate to the expression of tenderness, sadness, or peaceful and tranquil feeling.

[blocks in formation]

He therefore turning softly like a thief,
Lest the harsh shingle should grate underfoot,
And feeling all along the garden-wall,

Lest he should swoon and tumble and be found,
Crept to the gate, and opened it, and closed,
As lightly as a sick man's chamber-door,
Behind him, and came out upon the waste.

And there he would have knelt, but that his knees Were feeble, so that falling prone he dug

His fingers into the wet earth, and prayed.

TENNYSON.

II. SOFT OR SUBDUED FORCE.

Soft force differs from very soft only in degree.

[blocks in formation]

2. DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR.

Full knee-deep lies the winter-snow,

And the wintry winds are wearily sighing, Toll ye the church-bell, sad and slow,

And tread softly and speak low,

For the old year lies a-dying.
Old year, you must not die.

3. THE DEATH-BED.

TENNYSON.

We watched her breathing through the night,

Her breathing soft and low,

As in her breast the wave of life

Kept heaving to and fro.

Our very hopes belied our fears,

Our fears our hopes belied

We thought her dying when she slept,
And sleeping when she died.

4. THE FAERIE QUEEN.

HOOD.

Eftsoons they heard a most melodious sound
Of all that might delight a dainty ear.
Such as, at once, might not on living ground,
Save in this paradise, be heard elsewhere:

Right hard it was for wight which did it hear

To weet what manner music that might be,
For all that pleasing is to living ear

Was there consorted in one harmony;
Birds, voices, instruments, winds, waters, all agree.

SPENSER.

5. THE ARSENAL.

Down the dark future, through long generations,
The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease;
And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,

i hear once more the voice of Christ say, "Peace!"

LONGFELLOW.

6. THE LOST CHORD.

Seated one day at the organ,

I was weary and ill at ease,
And my fingers wandered idly
Over the noisy keys.

I do not know what I was playing,
Or what I was dreaming then;
But I struck one chord of music,
Like the sound of a great Amen!

It flooded the crimson twilight,

Like the close of an angel's psalm,
And it lay on my fevered spirit,
With a touch of infinite calm.

It quieted pain and sorrow,
Like love overcoming strife;
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life.

It linked all perplexed meanings
Into one perfect peace,
And trembled away into silence,
As if it were loath to cease.

ADELAIDE PROCTOR

III. MODERATE FORCE

Moderate force is the prevailing tone in the reading of unimpassioned narrative, descriptive, or didactic composition, in a small room, or to a small number of persons. It is the degree of force used in conversation. The characteristic quality of moderate force is "pure tone," and the stress. "unimpassioned radical."

EXAMPLES.

1. There was a sound of revelry by night.

2. What constitutes a state?

3. Scrooge never painted out old Marley's name.

4. The history of England is emphatically the history of progress.

5. The eyes of men converse as much as their tongues. 6. Spake full well in language quaint and olden,

One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine,
When he called the flowers, so blue and golden,
Stars, that in earth's firmament do shine.

7. The way was long, the wind was cold,
The minstrel was infirm and old.

8. I met a little cottage girl,

She was eight years old, she said;
Her hair was thick with many a curl,
That clustered round her head.

9. Blessings on thee, little man,
Barefoot boy with cheeks of tan,
With thy turned-up pantaloon,
And thy merry whistled tune.

10. I wrote some lines once on a time
In wondrous merry mood,

And thought, as usual, men would say
They were exceeding good.

They were so queer, so very queer,
I laughed as I would die;
Albeit, in the general way,
A sober man am I.

11. Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in seventy-five;-
Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

12. Around I see the powers that be;

I stand by Empire's primal springs;

And princes meet in every street,

And hear the tread of uncrowned kings!

13. Mrs. Siddons once had a pupil who was practicing for the stage. The lesson was upon the "part" of a young girl whose lover had deserted her. The rendering did not please that Queen of Tragedy, and she said: "Think how you would feel under the circumstances. What would you do if your lover were to run off and leave you?" "I would look out for another one,” said that philosophic young lady; and Mrs. Siddons, with a gesture of intense disgust, cried out, "Leave me!" and would never give her another lesson.

14. READING AS AN ACCOMPLISHMENT.

We had rather have a child return to us from school a first-rate reader, than a first-rate performer on the piano-forte. We should feel that we had a far better pledge for the intelligence and talent of our child. The accomplishment, in its perfection, would give more pleasure. The voice of song is not sweeter than the voice of eloquence. And there may be eloquent readers, as well as eloquent speakers.

« السابقةمتابعة »