EXERCISES ON THE COMPOSITION OF THE SENTENCE AND THE PARAGRAPH.
SELECTION FROM GEORGE ELIOT.
And this is Dovecote Mill. I must stand a minute or two here on the bridge and look at it, though the clouds are threatening and it is far on in the afternoon. Even in this leafless time of departing February, it is pleasant to look at it. Perhaps the chill, damp season adds a charm to the trimly-kept building, as old as the elms and chestnuts that shelter it from the northern blast.
The stream is brimful now, and half drowns the grassy fringe in front of the house. As I look at the stream, the vivid grass, the delicate, bright green softening the outline of the great trunks and branches that gleam from under the bare purple boughs, I am in love with moistness, and envy the white ducks that are dipping their heads far into the water, unmindful of the awkward appearance in the drier world above.
1. And now there is the huge covered wagon, coming home with sacks of grain. 2. That honest wagoner is thinking of his dinner, which is getting sadly dry in the oven at this late hour; but he will not touch it till he has fed his horses—the strong, submissive beasts, who, I fancy, are looking mild reproach at him from between their blinkers, that he should crack his whip at them in that awful manner, as if they needed such a hint! 3. See how they stretch their shoulders up the slope toward the bridge, with all the more energy because they are so near home. 4. Look at their grand, shaggy feet, that seem to grasp the firm earth, at the patient strength of their necks bowed under the heavy collar, at the mighty muscles of their struggling haunches. 5. I should like to see them, with their moist necks freed from the harness, dipping their eager nostrils into the pond.
+The Uses of Words and Groups of Words+.—Notice that in sentence 1, third paragraph, the subject is placed after the predicate. Tell what now and there do. Coming home with sacks of grain does what? Does coming express action? Does it assert action? What is it? What does home do? Put its before home and then read the whole phrase. What other change do you find necessary? A noun is sometimes used alone to do the work of an adverb phrase, the preposition being omitted. What is the office of minute in the second sentence of the first paragraph? What preposition could be put in? In 2, third paragraph, the pronoun which stands for dinner. Read the sentence, using the noun instead of the pronoun. Have you now two sentences, or one? You see that which not only stands for dinner, but it joins on a sentence so as to make it describe the dinner. What does till he has fed his horses do? Omitting till, would this group of words be a sentence? What, then, joins this group, and makes it do the work of an adverb? Notice the dash after horses. The writer here breaks off rather suddenly and begins again, using beasts instead of horses. To beasts are added many descriptive words. You will learn that this noun beasts added to the noun horses is called an explanatory modifier. Notice that I fancy is thrown in loosely or independently and is set off by commas. All the other words beginning with who and ending with hint are joined by who to beasts. Notice that the writer makes these beasts think like persons, and so uses who instead of which or that. Do we ordinarily speak of looking anything? In who are looking reproach, what is the object complement of are looking? What long group of words made up of two sentences tells why the beasts are looking reproach? Read separately the main divisions of 2. What conjunction connects these? Is one of these divisions itself divided into parts by commas? Should, then, some mark of wider separation be put between the main divisions of 2? To build so long a sentence as 2 is venturesome. We advise young writers not to make such attempts. It is hard to write very long sentences and keep the meaning clear. In 3 the subject of see is you, which is generally omitted in a command. You are here told to see what? Break this long object complement up into two sentences. What do the horses stretch? Where do they stretch their shoulders? How do they stretch? Why do they stretch with more energy? What is the subject of look in 4? The phrase beginning with at and ending with earth does what? Find two other long phrases introduced by at and tell what they do. That seem to grasp the firm earth goes with what? Put the noun feet in place of the pronoun that and make a separate sentence of this group. What word, then, makes an adjective modifier of this sentence and joins it to feet? Does to grasp assert action? What do you call it? It is here used as attribute complement. Bowed under the heavy collar describes what? Does bowed assert action? What do you call it?
+To the Teacher+.—If time permits, we believe that such exercises as the above may profitably be continued. This sentence work may perhaps best follow Lesson 50. See suggestions with preceding exercises.
+Descriptive Writing+.—This extract from the novelist who called herself "George Eliot" we have slightly changed for our purpose. It is purely +descriptive+. It is a painting in words—a vivid picture of a very pretty scene. How grateful we are to those who can, as it were, turn a page of a book into canvas, and paint on it a rich verbal picture that delights us every time we read it or recall it! How many such pictures there are in our libraries! And how little they cost us when compared with those that we buy and hang upon our walls!
+Some Features of a Good Description+.—Does this author mention many features of the mill, of the stream, and of the horses pulling their load over the bridge? Do those that she does mention suggest to you everything else? Name some of the things suggested to you but not mentioned in this description. Does not some of the charm of a description lie in the reader's having something left him to supply? If the author had given you every little detail of the mill, the stream, and the laboring horses, would not the description have been dull and tiresome? What things that the author imagined but did not really see are mentioned in the third paragraph? Do these touches of fancy or imagination help the picture? Do they show that the author was in love with her work? and do they therefore stimulate your fancy or imagination?
+The Framework+.—In making a framework for this description would you take for the general topic "The Scene from the Bridge" or "Things Seen from a Bridge"? or would you prefer some other wording of it? Now write out a framework, placing the sub-topics under the general topic as you have been taught.