The student may give himself fine exercise by choosing any one of the following moods and writing a one-minute composition upon it. Then let him read it aloud with the appropriate tone:
Admiration, Appeal, Argument, Comparison, Challenge, Command, Excitement, Geniality, Solemnity, Reproof, Modesty, Contempt, Encouragement, Determination, Affection, Pity, Joy, Gloom, Hate, Friendliness, Aspiration, Warning, Meditation, Horror, Belittlement, Exultation, Despair, Confusion, Calmness, Indifference, Suspense, Fear, Awe, Haste.
A wonderful illustration of “Mood” is afforded in a marvelous poem written by Bartholomew Dowling, at one time the editor of The Mirror, in San Francisco, California. It depicts the “heroism of despair,” as, perhaps, it was never presented before or since in all literature. Without commending the sentiment expressed, the authors give this poem a place in their volume as an incomparable example, well worthy of prolonged study, of the power of words to express “mood.” One of the greatest dramatists the world has ever known used to read this poem aloud, daily, for years.
HURRAH FOR THE NEXT THAT DIES![10]
By Bartholomew Dowling
We meet ’neath the sounding rafter,
And the walls around are bare:
As they shout back our peals of laughter,
It seems as the dead were there.