In each of the following simple sentences either the subject or the predicate or both are compound:—
- Games and carols closed the busy day.—Rogers.
- The stars leap forth, and tremble, and retire before the advancing moon.—George Meredith.
- Madame Defarge knitted with nimble fingers and steady eyebrows, and saw nothing.—Dickens.
- Work or worry had left its traces upon his thin, yellow face.—Doyle.
- Crows flutter about the towers and perch on every weathercock.—Irving.
- He gained the door to the landing, pulled it open, and rushed forth.—Lytton.
- Countrymen, butchers, drovers, hawkers, boys, thieves, idlers, and vagabonds of every low grade, were mingled together in a dense mass.—Dickens.
- There stood the broad-wheeled wains and the antique plows and the harrows.—Longfellow.
- Both Augustus and Peters joined with him in his design and insisted upon its immediately being carried into effect.—Poe.
- Women and children, from garrets alike and cellars, through infinite London, look down or look up with loving eyes upon our gay ribbons and our martial laurels.—De Quincey.
COMPOUND SENTENCES
451. If we attach another simple sentence to that in [§ 450], the result is a compound sentence.
The polar bear | lives in the Arctic regions, || but || it | sometimes reaches temperate latitudes.
This is manifestly a compound sentence, for it consists of two coördinate clauses, joined by the conjunction but ([§ 46]).
The framework of the second clause consists of the subject it and the simple predicate reaches. To make the complete predicate, the verb reaches takes not only a modifier (the adverb sometimes), but a complement,—the direct object latitudes, which completes the meaning of the verb. This noun is itself modified by the adjective temperate. Both clauses are simple, for each contains but one subject and one predicate.
452. Obviously, almost any number of simple sentences may be joined (with or without conjunctions) to make one compound sentence.
The quiet August noon has come;
A slumberous silence fills the sky;
The fields are still, the woods are dumb,
In glassy sleep the waters lie.—Bryant.
- States fall, arts fade, but Nature does not die.—Byron.
- The court was sitting; the case was heard; the judge had finished; and only the verdict was yet in arrear.—De Quincey.
- He softly blushed; he sighed; he hoped; he feared; he doubted; he sometimes yielded to the delightful idea.—Thackeray.
- A mob appeared before the window, a smart rap was heard at the door, the boys hallooed, and the maid announced Mr. Grenville.—Cowper.
- His health had suffered from confinement; his high spirit had been cruelly wounded; and soon after his liberation he died of a broken heart.—Macaulay.