6. All hail to our glorious ensign! Courage to the heart, and strength to the hand, to which in all time it shall be intrusted! May it ever wave in honor, in unsullied glory, and patriotic hope, on the dome of the capitol, on the country's stronghold, on the entented plain, on the wave-rocked topmast!
7. Rejoice, you men of Angiers! ring your bells!
King John, your king and England's, doth approach,
Commander of this hot malicious day!
Their armors that marched hence so silver bright
Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen's blood;
There stuck no plume in any English crest
That is removed by a staff of France;
Our colors do return in those same hands
That did display them when we first marched forth;
And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, come
Our lusty English, all with purpled hands
Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes.
INFLECTION.
Inflection is a slide of voice, either up or down in pitch, or both, on the accented syllable of a word. You have learned in previous pages what kinds there are. Major inflections express strength: minor express weakness.
Rising inflections refer to something to come that shall complete the sense. If you speak a phrase that needs another to complete its meaning, you will use a rising inflection to connect them. If you defer to another's will, opinion, or knowledge, in what you say, you will use a rising inflection. If you speak of two or more things, thinking of them as a whole, and not separately, you use a rising inflection.
Falling inflections are used when a phrase or sentence is complete in itself. If you state your own will, opinion, or knowledge, you will use falling inflection. If you speak of two or more things separately, wishing to make each one by itself distinct in the hearer's mind, you will use falling inflections.
Circumflex inflections, being composed of rising and falling inflections combined, are doubtful in meaning; for if rising means one thing, and falling means another, a combination must mean doubt. It expresses irony, sarcasm, &c.
Monotone is a varying of inflection within very narrow limits, and comes as near to chanting as the voice can, and still retain the expressiveness of inflection in speech. It expresses any slow-moving emotions, as grandeur, awe, solemnity, &c.
Practise the short extracts under each head until you are sure you give the right inflection in the right place.