Make a list of the figures of speech. How many similes? metaphors? examples of personification? Which seems most effective? Which instance of its use do you prefer? Has Lowell used too many figures?
Read “The Oak,” “The Dandelion,” and “Al Fresco.”
Are they description or exposition? Do they bear out Lowell’s estimate of himself?
THE SKETCH-BOOK.
(Riverside Literature Series, Nos. 51, 52.)
Why has Irving given four pages to the description of Sleepy Hollow before he introduces Ichabod Crane?
Why, then, seven pages to Ichabod before the story begins?
What gives the peculiar interest to this tale?
In the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” how many paragraphs of description close with an important detail?
[83] In how many with a general characterization?
In all the descriptions of buildings by Irving that you have read, what are the first things mentioned,—size, shape, color, or what? Make a list, so as to be sure.