Exercise 110.—I. Write in the same way as in the preceding lesson a picture, in a paragraph or two, suggested by any of the following subjects, trying to catch the most characteristic points, such as would impress you after a moment's observation, and to state them vividly and briefly, so that the description may be recognizable.
The iceman; the policeman; the washerwoman; the janitor; a street-car conductor; a postman; an organ grinder; a newsboy; a farmer; a classmate; a messenger boy; a butcher; any one of unusual appearance who has passed you in the street, or whom you have seen in the cars.
II. Or, give in the same brief, picturesque manner the impression made by a first sight of your dog as differing from other dogs of the same breed, trying to express the way in which his character shows itself through his appearance—kind and slow, or nervous and active, or affectionate and playful, etc.; of any dog you have seen who has a marked individuality; of your cat, canary, or any of your pets.
In describing a person you will find very often that you are most impressed by the eyes, and that they give the characteristic expression to the face. These following extracts, taken from one novel, the work of a skillful writer, show how much attention is paid to the eyes of the persons described:—
1. She was tall and pale, thin and a little awkward; her hair was fair and perfectly straight; her eyes were dark and they had the singularity of seeming at once dull and restless.
2. The second young lady was also thin and pale; but she was older than the other; she was shorter; she had dark, smooth hair. Her eyes, unlike the other's, were quick and bright; but they were not at all restless.
3. This latter personage was a man of rather less than the usual stature and the usual weight, with a quick, observant, agreeable dark eye.
4. She was a fair, plump person, of medium stature, with a round face, a small mouth, a delicate complexion, a bunch of light brown curls at the back of her head, and a peculiarly open, surprised-looking eye.
Exercise 111.—I. Look at a portrait or bust of Julius Cæsar and see if you think his appearance as a young man was well described by the historian Froude in the following extract:—
A tall, slight, handsome youth, with dark piercing eyes, a sallow complexion, large nose, lips full, features refined and intellectual, neck sinewy and thick, beyond what might have been expected from the generally slender figure.
II. Write a paragraph or two describing the personal appearance of any noted man or woman with whose portrait you are familiar. Try to reproduce the most striking traits, describing them as if you were speaking of a living person.
(a) Sir Walter Scott, George Eliot, Hawthorne, Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Whittier, Bryant, Dickens, Tennyson, Louisa M. Alcott.
(b) George Washington, Daniel Webster, Abraham Lincoln, General Grant, Alexander Hamilton, Bismarck, Napoleon, Julius Cæsar, Queen Victoria, Queen Wilhelmina.
III. Think over some of the fictitious characters given below; try to imagine how they would look, and write a brief description as of a living person. Do not begin writing until you have a complete picture in your mind.
Cinderella and her two wicked sisters, Robin Hood, Ali Baba, Robinson Crusoe, Sindbad the Sailor, Uncle Remus, The Sleeping Beauty, Shylock, King Lear, St. George, Santa Claus, Bluebeard, Ruth, Samuel, David and Goliath.
67. Longer Description.—You are now ready to try descriptions on a little larger scale. Be careful, however, to bear in mind the following hints:—
1. Plan your whole description before you write any part of it, and see that you are following some natural order, such as from left to right, or right to left, from the top down, from the bottom up, from head to foot, etc. In describing a landscape, for instance, from a fixed point, after the introduction (usually only a single sentence) you begin with what is nearest to you—the foreground—and proceed to more distant points of the scene. Or you begin with what is far away—the background—and come closer and closer, finishing with the things immediately about you.
2. Use no details which will not add to the vividness and force of your picture. In describing a library, for instance, you can very well leave out any mention of the number of chairs there are in the room, or of the fact that the front door is of oak, since those details might be true of any large public room. But you must not fail to notice and to remark on the stillness of the place,—people walking about very quietly and talking in whispers, standing close to each other,—for that is one of the things which distinguishes a library from other places. So, in writing of both a handsome street and an alleyway, you would be telling the truth if you said that they were both paved and had a gutter on each side, but you would not be making a picture, as you would if you spoke of battered ash barrels and hungry cats in the alley, and of beautiful lawns and pretty romping children in the handsome street. In observing the scene you wish to describe, you should notice everything, looking at a sight long familiar to you with the steady gaze you had to give in order to see what is really on a postage stamp or a dollar bill. You will find that you have looked at the view from your window with the same careless, vacant, absent gaze, lacking real attention, and that you need to fix your mind on observing a landscape or a scene, before you take in a great many details that are essential. But when you come to writing, you should think of each detail before you use it, to see if it brings the picture out more clearly.
3. Use some device for expressing the relation between the different parts of your picture. This is usually done by employing complex sentences made up by means of connecting links, such as near which, above which, around which, etc., and by using such phrases as farther off, nearer by, close at hand, far away, in the distance, high up, directly below, on the other side, beyond, etc.
Exercise 112.—Describe such of the following as your teacher may indicate:—
1. What I see from my window at home, at school. 2. View from the highest place to which I ever climbed. 3. View from the top of our house. 4. The most beautiful view I ever saw. 5. How our street looks from our front steps. 6. Across the meadow. 7. How my room looks from the door. 8. The views in the park I like best. 9. View along a country road. 10. Trees along a village street. 11. View along a street in a large city. 12. The inside of our church from where I sit. 13. My class room from my seat. 14. Our kitchen. 15. The inside of a barn. 16. What I can see from the door of a barn. 17. An alleyway in a city. 18. View along the most beautiful street I know. 19. View from the back of a river or lake. 20. Imaginary description of the view I should like best to be able to see from my window. 21. How my room would look if I could have it exactly as I wished. 22. The prettiest parlor I ever saw. 23. How the inside of a public library looks from the door. 24. A view in the woods in the winter. 25. An orchard in bloom. 26. Beside the brook. 27. In the market. 28. Scene in a department store; in a hospital; in a restaurant. 29. A soda-water fountain. 30. A sand pile where children have been playing "keep-house." 31. Any scene at a county fair.
68. Description of Conditions.—Read the following description:—
A cornfield in July is a hot place. The soil is hot and dry; the wind comes across the lazily murmuring leaves laden with a warm, sickening smell drawn from the rapidly growing, broad-flung banners of the corn. The sun, nearly vertical, drops a flood of dazzling light and heat upon the field, over which the cool shadows run, only to make the heat seem the more intense.—Hamlin Garland: Main-traveled Roads.