LESSON 154.
FIGURES OF SPEECH—CRITICISM.
+Direction+.—Name the figures of speech, and then recast a few sentences, using plain language, and note the loss of beauty and force:—
1. Lend me your ears. 2. Please address the chair. 3. The robin knows when your grapes have cooked long enough in the sun. 4. A day will come when bullets and bombs shall be replaced by ballots. 5. Genius creates; taste appreciates what is created. 6. Caesar were no lion were not Romans hinds. 7. The soul of Jonathan was knit to that of David. 8. Traffic has lain down to rest. 9. Borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 10. He will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. 11. Have you read Froude or Freeman? 12. The pen is mightier than the sword. 13. If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. 14. The destinies of mankind were trembling in the balance, while death fell in showers. 15. The threaded steel flies swiftly. 16. O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb that carries anger as the flint bears fire. 17. I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old_. 18. Nations shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. 19. The Morn in russet mantle clad walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. 20. Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a sudden overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a constant stream. 21. The air bites shrewdly. 22. He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus. 23. My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar. 24. All hands to the pumps! 25. The gray-eyed Morn smiles on the frowning Night. 26. The good is often buried with men's bones. 27. Beware of the bottle. 28. All nations respect our flag. 29. The marble speaks. 30. I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent. 31. I am as constant as the northern star. 32. Then burst his mighty heart. 33. The ice is covered with health and beauty on skates. 34. Lentulus returned with victorious eagles. 35. Death hath sucked the honey of thy breath. 36. Our chains are forged. 37. I have bought golden opinions. 38. The hearth blazed high. 39. His words fell softer than snows on the brine. 40. Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund Day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain top.
+Direction+.—In the first four sentences, use similes; in the second four, metaphors; in the third four, personifications; in the last eight, metonymies:—
1. He flew with the swiftness of an arrow. 2. In battle some men are brave, others are cowardly. 3. His head is as full of plans as it can hold. 4. I heard a loud noise. 5. Boston is the place where American liberty began. 6. Our dispositions should grow mild as we grow old. 7. The stars can no longer be seen. 8. In battle some men are brave, others are cowardly. 9. The cock tears up the ground for his family of hens and chickens. 10. The waves were still. 11. The oak stretches out its strong branches. 12. The flowers are the sweet and pretty growths of the earth and sun. 13. English vessels plow the seas of the two hemispheres. 14. Have you read Lamb's Essays? 15. The water is boiling. 16. We have prostrated ourselves before the king. 17. Wretched people shiver in their lair of straw. 18. The soldier is giving way to the husbandman. 19. Swords flashed, and bullets fell. 20. His banner led the spearmen no more.
+Remark+.—If what is begun as a metaphor is not completed as begun, but is completed by a part of another metaphor or by plain language, we have what, is called a mixed metaphor. It requires great care to avoid this very common error.
+Direction+.—Correct these errors:—
1. The devouring fire uprooted the stubble. 2. The brittle thread of life may be cut asunder. 3. All the ripe fruit of three-score years was blighted in a day. 4. Unravel the obscurities of this knotty question. 5. We must apply the axe to the fountain of this evil. 6. The man stalks into court like a motionless statue, with the cloak of hypocrisy in his mouth. 7. The thin mantle of snow dissolved. 8. I smell a rat, I see him brewing in the air, but I shall yet nip him in the bud.
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