bloom? Does it close at night and open in the morning? Note lines three and four of the first stanza. With what other flowers does the author contrast it? How? What is the “ground-bird”? With what is the year compared? Explain the fourth stanza in your own words. What is a "cerulean wall"? What wish does the author express in the last stanza?

Did you ever see a fringed gentian? Learn all you can about the flower from sources other than the poem.

Write one-page papers on one or two of the following topics:

1. Why is the fringed gentian so highly prized?
2. The Gentian and its Spring rivals; a comparison.
3. Glimpses of Spring and Autumn. (Enlarge some of

the scenes suggested by the poem.)

4. The Gentian and the Poet's wish,

Chapter IV

CLASSES OF SENTENCES

23. On the Basis of Number and Relation of the Thoughts Expressed, or the Form. Examine the following sentences carefully. Tell how many thoughts each expresses. Give the elements of each thought. Give the parts of each sentence or clause. When the sentence expresses more than one thought, try to state the relation between the thoughts. Is one thought a part of the other? Is it a part of the thought subject, or the thought predicate, or the thought relation of the other; or is neither thought a part of the other?

1. Washington, the father of his country, was our first president.

2. Washington, who was the father of his country, was our first president.

3. Washington was the father of his country, and he was our first president.

We notice that the first of these sentences expresses only a single thought subject, a single thought predicate, and a single thought relation. In other words, it expresses only one thought. We call this kind of sentence a simple sentence. The second sentence expresses two thought

subjects, two thought predicates, and two thought relations. In other words it expresses two thoughts. The first thought is expressed by the words, Washington was our first president. Give the elements of this thought and then the parts of the clause. The second thought is expressed by the words, Who was the father of his country. Give the elements of this thought and then the parts of the clause. We notice, however, that the second thought is a part of the thought subject of the first thought. Sometimes the second thought is a part of the thought predicate or the thought relation of the first thought. When a thought is a part of one of the elements of another thought, we call it a subordinate thought, or we say that the thoughts expressed by such a sentence are of unequal rank. The first thought expressed by this second sentence we call a principal thought because it does not depend upon or is not a part of any other thought. We call this kind of a sentence a complex sentence.

The third sentence in the list also expresses two thoughts. The first thought is expressed by the words, Washington was the father of his country. Give the elements of this thought and then the parts of the clause. The second thought is expressed by the words, he was our first president. Give the elements of this thought and then the parts of the clause. In this particular it is like the second sentence and differs from the first sentence. It

differs from the second sentence, however, in that neither one of these thoughts is a part of the other. We say that they are independent thoughts or thoughts of equal rank because neither one is dependent upon or forms a part of the other. We call this kind of a sentence a compound sentence.

24. Simple, Complex and Compound Sentences Defined. From what we have said in the last section, we may form the following definitions:

1. A simple sentence is a sentence which expresses a single thought; as, Gold glitters.

2. A Complex sentence is a sentence which expresses one principal thought and one or more subordinate thoughts; as, Gold, which is valuable, glitters when held in the sunlight.

3. A Compound sentence is a sentence which expresses two or more independent thoughts of equal rank; as, Gold glitters in the sunlight and it is valuable.

25. The Clause Defined. We may also see from the last two Sections that a clause is very much like a sentence. It expresses a thought and like the sentence it has a subject, predicate and copula. But it is always a part of a sentence.

A clause is a group of words, composed of a subject, predicate and copula, which is a part of a sentence; as, The Charter Oak, which was blown down in a storm, was an historic landmark. This sentence contains two clauses. The first clause

is the words, The Charter Oak was an historic landmark. The second clause is the words, which was blown down in a storm.

Exercise II

Take your dictionaries and find the literal meaning of the words simple, complex and compound as indicated in Section 1. Do the literal meanings of these words help you to understand these kinds of sentences? Why?

Analyze the following thoughts and sentences according to the following scheme:

CLASSIFY THE SENTENCES ON THE TWO BASES WHICH WE HAVE SO FAR DISCOVERED, THAT IS, ON THE BASIS OF CHIEF PURPOSE AND THE BASIS OF THE NUMBER AND RELATION OF THOUGHTS EXPRESSED, STATE THE BASIS IN EACH CASE AND GIVE THE REASONS FOR YOUR CLASSIFICATION.

I. IF THE SENTENCE IS A SIMPLE SENTENCE:

(a) Give the elements of the thought expressed by it with reasons for each.

(b) Give the parts of the sentence with reasons for each.

II. IF THE SENTENCE IS COMPLEX:

(a) Give the elements of the entire thought with

reasons.

(b) Give the parts of the entire sentence with reasons. (c) Give the words which express the principal thought. 1. Give the elements of the principal thought. 2. Give the parts of the principal clause. (d) Give the words which express each subordinate thought.

1. Give the elements of each subordinate thought. 2. Give the parts of each subordinate clause.