7. Leave only a small opening between the lips; inhale as slowly as possible; exhale with a quick impulse to the sound ä. 8. Inhale by drawing the breath in through the nostrils in short, quick breaths, noiselessly, until felt underneath the shoulder-blades. This gives a full breath. Take them quicker and quicker. Repeat ten times. 9. Throat open and loose, muscles all free and easy, never rigid. Tongue loose and natural. 10. Hold the breath steadily and quietly. Pronounce “ah” for twenty seconds. Repeat ten times. 11. Inhale quickly a full deep breath through the nostrils; then exhale slowly to the sound of a. 12. Inhale quickly, a full deep breath; exhale slowly to the sound of o. In like manner also e, i, o, u, oo. At least three minutes should be spent in breathing-drills before each recitation. VOCAL AND BREATHING EXERCISES. The splendor falls on castle walls, And snowy summits old in story; The long light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory. Blow, bugle, blow; set the wild echoes flying; MARK HALEY: "Charco'! charco'! وو ROGUISH LAD: Ark, ho! ark, ho!" M. H.: "Charco'! charco'!" WIFE: "Mark, ho! Mark, ho!" M. H.: "Charco'! charco'! BABY: "Ah, go! ah, go! 66 Mark and Echo alternate, "Charco'! charco'! " 'Hark, O! hark, O!" "Charco'!" Hark, O!" Long may the sounds LESSON XIV. FIGURES OF SPEECH. Speech is the faculty of expressing thoughts by means of words or articulate sounds. A figure of speech is any deviation from a direct mode of expression. "Be ye wise as serpents" is a figure of speech. There are twelve figures of speech commonly used in the expression of thought; they are the simile, metaphor, personification, antithesis, synecdoche, climax, anticlimax, metonymy, irony, hyperbole, apostrophe, and allegory. A simile expresses a likeness of one thing to another. A metaphor speaks of an object as though it were another. The wish is father to the thought. Personification represents inanimate objects as having life or personality. O Winter! ruler of the inverted year. Antithesis emphasizes an idea by a contrast or opposition of thought. Hatred stirreth up strifes; but love covereth all sins. Wit laughs at things; humor laughs with them. In synecdoche, a part is put for the whole or the whole for a part; a species for genus or the genus for the species. He dare not come beneath my roof. Give us this day our daily bread. Climax is a succession of statements, rising in strength until the last. We have complained; we have petitioned; we have ENTREATED; we have SUPPLICATED. Strike- till the last armed foe expires; STRIKE STRIKE for your altars and your fires; for the green graves of your sires, GOD and your native land! Anticlimax is a succession of statements, each one weaker than the one preceding; as, I never will submit,—at least, I will not submit without a battle; but of course if overpowered may be compelled to submit. Metonymy is the use of the name of one object to repre sent some related object. Bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Who steals my purse steals trash. Irony is the use of words so as to convey a meaning exactly opposite to what is said. Brutus is an honorable man. No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom will die with you. Hyperbole is a magnifying of objects beyond natural bounds in order to make a statement more emphatic. Rivers of waters did run down from mine eyes. The waves rolled mountain high. Apostrophe addresses some absent person or thing as though present and listening. Ye toppling crags of ice! Ye avalanches, whom a breath draws down, In mountainous overwhelming, come and crush me. An allegory is a description of one thing under the image of another. God brought a vine out of Egypt, and planted it in Palestine. Το NOTE.-We know that God's people, Israel, is meant, although Israel is not mentioned. make a simile, we would say: "Israel is like a vine brought from Egypt and planted in Palestine." To make a metaphor: "Israel is a vine brought from Egypt," etc. In allegory the application is left entirely to the imagination of the reader. ENGLISH LITERATURE. English literature is of two kinds, poetry and prose. POETRY. Poetry, to be worthy of the name, must be in the form of verse and poetical in its essence. It is the product of an excited and creative imagination, so arranged as to please the reader. The following kinds may be found in the literature of the past and present: Epic, dramatic, lyric, elegiac, pastoral, and didactic. Epic poetry is a recital of heroic or valorous deeds as found in such poems as Homer's Iliad, Milton's Paradise Lost, etc. It is essential that there be a hero, around whom cluster many actors in some complicated plot. Such poems as Sheridan's Ride, Paul Revere's Ride, Ride of Jennie McNeal, are examples of epic poetry. Dramatic poetry is very much like the epic, only more tragic in its character, and represents actions as actually occurring. There are two principal kinds - the tragedy, and comedy. The tragedy is the more serious, and appeals to the strongest passions of the soul. Poems which relate to scenes of suffering, violence, or death, belong to this class. Lyric poetry meant originally poetry to be accompanied by the lyre; hence it abounds in song. There are five varieties found in odes or songs - the sacred, heroic, moral, amatory, and comic. Psalms and hymns compose the sacred, patriotic poems illustrate the heroic, while the moral would comprise such as Collins's ode on the Passions, etc. Amatory odes abound in the love songs of all nations and |