t suggest to you as
to Burke's social and mental qualifications?
5. Suppose you were told that a passage of twenty-eight lines contains the
following expressions: "mewling and puking," "whining schoolboy,"
"satchel," "sighing like furnace," "round belly," "spectacles on nose,"
"shrunk shank," "sans [without] teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans
everything." Would you believe the passage is poetry?--that its total
effect is one of poetic elevation? Read the Seven Ages of Man (Appendix
4). _Is_ it poetry? How does Shakespeare reconcile the general poetic
tone with such expressions as those quoted?
6. What is wrong with the connotation of the following?
The servant told us that the young ladies were all in.
All my poor success is due to you.
He insisted on carrying a revolver, and so the college authorities fired
him.
The carpenter too had his castles in Spain.
He rested his old bones by the wayside, and his gaunt dog stood sniffing
at them.
On the other hand, he had a white elephant to dispose of.
When he came to the forks of the road, he showed he was not on the square.
Body, for funeral purposes, must be sold at once. City Automobile Agency.
7. Can you express the following ideas in other words without sacrifice of
emotional suggestion? Try.
The music, yearning like a god in pain.
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea!
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago.
It was night in the lonesome October.
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars, that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight.
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.
Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot.
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true
As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,--
'Tis the natural way of living.
We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
8. With the most connotative words at your command describe the following:
Your first sweetheart
A solemn experience
A ludicrous experience
A terrifying experience
A mysterious experience
The circus parade
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