Eyes: bright, dull, sparkling, clear, heavy, close-set, shifting, narrow, honest, gentle, penetrating, keen, kindly, expressive, lovely, hard.
Forehead: noble, high, receding, low, broad, narrow, well-shaped.
Figure: muscular, wiry, broad-shouldered, well-proportioned, slender, thick-set, stout, short, tall.
1. Make a similar list to describe a person's disposition, ability, conversation.
2. Make a list of the descriptive words used by Longfellow in The Village Blacksmith.
Exercise 42.—Find as many descriptions of winter as you can. Make lists of words used by the authors in describing it. Make lists of words that you might use in describing the following: a picnic; Christmas night; the weather; the character of Washington; an old house; a shell; a feather; a sunset; Mount Washington; a lily-of-the valley; your favorite walk.
Exercise 43.—The same scene may look very different to you at different times,—for instance, a piece of woods which you visit in company with some merry boys and girls in search of spring flowers, and the same woods in which you wander alone, having lost your way.
Select from the following list adjectives which you might use in writing the first description; the second.
Things described: path, leaves on the ground, birds, squirrels, trees, brook.
Descriptive words: lonely, crisp, solitary, chattering, moaning, merry, mournful, timid, scolding, shady, romantic, charming, singing, sweet-voiced, warning, sobbing, dismal, gloomy.
Exercise 44.—Compare the following: 1. New York Harbor seen by a citizen of New York who is returning home after a long absence in some foreign country. 2. The same viewed by a homesick Norwegian girl who has left all her friends in Norway.
Select some of your descriptive words from the following, adding as many others as you feel that you need: inhospitable, gloomy, cold, hard, welcome, joyous, sad, bright, glorious, fearful, lonely, pathetic, homesick.
Exercise 45.—1. The village bell is ringing. Describe the way it sounds to you on the following occasions:—
Calling to church service on a clear, sunny Sabbath morning; tolling for the death of a dear friend; ringing in celebration of a victory (suppose that we are at war with another country); ringing to celebrate a wedding; ringing "the old year out, and the new year in." [Read The Bells, by Edgar Allan Poe, before writing.]
2. Write a paragraph telling how you felt when you heard that you were to have some unexpected pleasure.
3. Imagine yourself living on the morning of April 15, 1865. Describe your feelings on learning of the death of Lincoln.
19. Synonyms.—Synonyms are words which have the same or nearly the same meaning.
Examples: Liberal, generous; face, countenance.
A knowledge of synonyms will be valuable to you in several ways. First, it will enable you to avoid the too frequent repetition of a word. By using synonyms, then, you add variety to your writing.