her eyes as the berry that grows on the thorn by the wayside. 4. And when she had passed, it was like the ceasing of exquisite music. 5. An author's pen, like children's legs, improves by exercise. 6. He watched the flames and the smoke-wreaths struggle together like foes in a burning city. 7. Near him the tire of the cart-wheel lay, like a fiery snake, coiled round in a circle of cinders. 8. Like a guiding star, amid the thickest carnage blazed the helmet of Navarre. 9. There curls the smoke of my cottage, beguiling the children, who cluster, like grapes, at the doorway. 10. And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled, like a candle flame where salt is sprinkled. 11. On the river fell here and there through the branches a tremulous gleam of the moonlight, like the sweet thoughts of love on a darkened and devious spirit. 12. Swiftly they followed the flight of him who was speeding before them blown by the blast of fate, like a dead leaf over the desert. 13. White as the snow were his locks, and his cheeks as brown as the oak-leaves. METAPHOR. If we say, He was a lion in the fight, we do not mean that he was transformed into a lion, but merely that he fought as fiercely as a lion. When we speak of the golden leaves of the maples, we do not mean that the leaves are made of gold, but that they are yellow like gold. The man and the lion are alike only in this quality of fierceness, the leaves and the gold only in the quality of color. This form of comparison is called metaphor. Metaphor can be expanded to simile by introducing the connective. Golden leaves = leaves like gold. Silvery moonbeams = moon beams white as silver. Exercise 72.- Explain the following metaphors, and turn as many of them as possible into similes. 1. Behind the black wall of the forest, tipping its summit with silver, arose the moon. 2. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. 3. One burnished sheet of living gold, Loch Katrine lay beneath him rolled. 4. Hale and hearty he was, an oak that is covered with snowflakes. 5. Love is the ladder on which we climb to a likeness with God. 6. Sweet Teviot, on thy silver tide the glaring balefires blaze no more. 7. All flesh is grass. 8. The Lord is my Shepherd. 9. "The tale, O Poet, which thy lips have told," I said, "is words of rubies set in gold." 10. Over her head the stars, the thoughts of God in the heavens, shone in the eyes of man. 11. All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. METONYMY. If we say, The kettle boils, The man smokes his pipe, we mean the water in the kettle boils, the man smokes the tobacco in the pipe. The kettle and the water it contains, the pipe and the tobacco, have not a single quality alike, but they go so necessarily together that everybody understands what we mean when we speak of one for the other. This figure, you see, is not a comparison of objects, a likeness of certain qualities, as in simile and metaphor, but is merely the substitution of the name of one object for that of another with which it is so closely connected that one will suggest the other. The figure is called metonymy, that is, change of name. So we say, He studies Shakespeare, that is, Shakespeare's plays. The glittering steel descended, that is, the sword which is made of steel. Exercise 73.-Explain the following metonymies. Convert each sentence into literal language. 1. The drunkard loves his bottle. 2. Man shall live by the sweat of his brow. 3. This dish is well cooked. 4. The pen is mightier than the sword. 5. They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. 6. Fair she was to behold, that maiden of seventeen summers. 7. The hedges are white with May. 8. Do you read Byron ? 9. Socrates drank the fatal cup. 10. A fleet of thirty sail was seen. 11. Fifty head of cattle were driven through the city. 12. She lived as a Sister of Mercy, frequenting lonely and wretched roofs in the crowded lanes of the city. 13. The prince succeeded to the throne. 14. He could not believe that he was such a bad oar as the old hands made him out to be. PERSONIFICATION. Freedom is O Freedom, close not thy lids in slumber. here represented as a person, has eyelids, can sleep, and can understand when addressed. The Fox said to the Crow, "Beautiful creature, what a sweet voice you have!" Here these animals are supposed to be talking, which in reality only persons can do. This attributing to lower animals and to inanimate objects, the qualities of persons is called personification. Exercise 74.-Explain the personifications, and express each example in plain language. 1. O sacred Truth! thy triumph ceased awhile, 4. O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care 5. As an earthquake rocks a corse In its coffin in the clay, So white Winter, that rough nurse, Rocks the dead-cold Year to-day. Solemn Hours, wail aloud For your mother in her shroud! PRINCIPLE.-Clearness, energy, and beauty of expression are increased by a judicious use of figures. Caution, however, must be exercised by the pupil when he attempts to use figures himself. He must see that the figures used are appropriate, and that one figure is not mixed with another. EXERCISES IN COMPOSITION. REPRODUCTION XI. IN THE TOWER. By the river deep and black, To the English skies. Centuries ago it stood Grim as now, and seemed to frown And on London town. There, one day, knowing not Not as yet the haughty queen, But a princess, young and fair With no crown upon her head, Save of golden hair. Trembling, passed she through the door, Door of dread and door of doubt, Where so many had gone in, Never to come out. Foes behind, and spies beside, Questioned, menaced, and betrayed, None to counsel, none to help, Went the royal maid. Through the heavy-hearted land, Good men prayed with bated breath: "Save her, Lord, for Thou canst save— Save Elizabeth!" Musing in her dreary cell, Pacing, all alone, for hours, In a little garden, set "Twixt the frowning towers, Slowly crept the lagging weeks, Sadly dragged the lingering day; Not a prisoner might dare Not a foot might cross her path, In the Tower lived children four, A new playfellow they spied, That was all they cared or knew, And, like flies to honey-pot, It was vain to tell them nay; It was vain to shut the door; Under, over, any way, Went the children four. |