or expressions at hand as you write a paragraph and
use them when needed in mentioning the items ivith
which you intend to enforce the fundamental quality.
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The Descriptive Paragraph 155
3. Before writing the paragraph make a list of the
details you intend to put into the picture,
4. Follow the law of paragraph structure in regard
to the firsts the lasty and the intervening sentences,
(899, ha,b,c,)
5. Use the different devices mentioned throughout
this chapter^ for the handling of material^ whenever
you can do so without making your work strained and
unnatural.
loi. Place-description in Pictures. What details
in the picture facing page 196 give the place? the
time ? What does the title tell you ? Who are the
characters A, B, and C? What is the place of A?
of B? of C? How does the action of A, B, and C
differ? What is the occasion? In what continent
do you imagine the place to be? In writing the
second paragraph can you increase the impression
of desolation by adding to the details actually given
in the picture others that it merely suggests to you —
weird sounds, for instance, or silence, or movement?
Describe this picture, using for the first paragraph
a situation ; for the second, place-description with
desolation as a fundamental quality.
Find other pictures of places.
102. Description of Personal Appearance. —Mo-
tive II. Unity of effect is secured by assigning a
fundamental quality to the following picture of a
person:
Model
The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his
person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow
shoulders, lon^^ arms and legs, hands that dangled a
mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served
for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung
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156 Composition and Rhetoric
together. His head was small, and flat at top, with
huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe
nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock, perched upon
his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To
see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy
day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him,
one mi^ht have mistaken him for the genius of famine
descending upon the earthy or some scarecrow eloped from
a corn-field, —Washington Irving, The Sketch-Book.
Analysis of the Model
1. The paragraph structure is the same as in Description-
motive /. (Description of place, § 99.)
Prove this by studying the first, the last, and the intervening
sentences. What is the fundamental quality ? What expressions
enforce this quality ?
2. The material used to develop the fundamental quality
consists of :
Items of personal appearance — figure, posture, gait, dress,
features. In which sentence of the quotation do you find each of
the items of personal appearance mentioned above ?
3. In the order of arrangement^ the larger or more general
items are placed first.
Figure, posture, and gait are mentioned before details of the
face. Prove this from the model. What details are put in phrases
and clauses ?
4. The devices used in the handling of detail are :
a. The giving of the summarizing sentence in the form
of a simile instead of a general statement, as in Descrip-
tion-motive I. What is the simile ?
b. Find another simile or comparison.
Directions for Describing Personal Appearance
In describing personal appearance, observe the fol-
lowing suggestions in addition to the general directions
for the writing of the descriptive paragraph given in
section 100.
I. Put the larger or more general details first.
In the model quoted above, stature is the first item men-
tioned; the face the last.
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The Descriptive Paragraph * 157
2. Do not use the words ^'figure" '^'gait^" ^^form,*'
''posture"
It is better to mention, instead, some part of the body,
as shoulders, arms, etc., and describe the gait by using
expressive verbs; such as, "glide," ** bustle." (See §30.)
3. Do not use the expressions "//i? had" "//^ was"
"//if wore" too frequently^ as the repetition of these words
becomes monotonous, {See %%jo and ^2,)
4. Remember to begin some of your sentences with
phrases or clauses,
5. Do not use the words ^^ betoken" '^altogether"
"nevertheless" "spoke volumes"
This direction is given because these are words students
are prone to use again and again in the description of
personal appearance. It is meant to include any word or
phrase that is used too frequently.
6. Beware of sentiment alism^ tawdry adjectives^
"fine writing" and slang,
7. Take care not to coin words or use those that arc
obsolete,
8. Do not use "the " before an item of personal appear-
ance. Say "his" or "her,"
9. Do not use two participles after a noun,
•* The Tory i frightened^ thinking to soften his antag-
onist."
** The sun, shining so brilliantly, peering through, wit-
nessed a mortal combat."
10. Place only adjectives of permanent quality before
the noun,
' • His sunken, cast down eyes gazed at the door. " * * Cast
down •* is only a temporary condition of the eyes and not a
permanent characteristic. It should therefore follow the
noun it modifies.
** Her tossed hair *' is another example of this error.
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158 - Composition and Rhetoric
103. The Portrayal of Personal Appearance in
Pictures. Is the time element given in the picture
facing page 216? At what seasons of the year is a
hoe most likely to be used? What is the man hoe-
ing? Is he working or resting? What does the posi-
tion of his hands tell? Notice the shape of his
hands and feet. What does his general attitude
show? What can you say about the expression of
his eyes? Are his eyes deep set? Does his fore-
head indicate much mental development?
Describe this picture, using for the first paragjraph
a situation; for the second, a description of the per-
sonal appearance of the man, with debasement as the
fundamental quality.
Find other pictures in which personal appearance
is the leading motive.
104. The Description of Character.— Motive
III. Unity of impression is secured in the follow-
ing model also by the use of a fundamental quality :
Model
Jot Bascom could always be relied on for the latest
and most authentic news He was an attend-
ant at every funeral, and as far as possible every wed-
ding, in the village ; at every flag-raising and husking,
and town and county fair. When more pressing duties
did not hinder, he endeavored to meet the two daily
trains that passed through Milliken's Mills, a mile or
two from Pleasant River. He accompanied the sheriflE
on all journeys entailing serving of papers and other
embarrassing duties common to the law
He went with all paupers to the Poor Farm, and never
missed a town meeting He knew who o-wed
the fish-man and who owed the meat-man, and -who
could not get trusted by either of them. In fact ^ so far
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The Descriptive Paragraph 159
as the divine attributes of omniscience and omnipresence
could be vested in a faulty human creature^ they were
present in fat Bascom,
— Kate Douglas WiGGiN, The Village Watch Tower,
Analysis of the Model
1. The paragraph structure is the same as in Description-
motive L
2. The material used to develop the fundamental quality in
character-description consists of:
The habits of life, tastes, opinions, accomplishments* but not
details of the personal appearance, of the person whose character
is described ; we need this latter material for a separate motive —
that of the description of personal appearance (g 102).
Use incidents chiefly for material in writing character-descrip-
tion.
What is the fundamental quality of the character described
above ? What details enforce this quality ?
105. Character Portrayal in Pictures. Write a
description of the picture facing page 242, using for
the first paragraph a situation ; for the second, a de-
scription of the personal appearance of the woman,
with dignity as a fundamental quality ; for the third,
description of the character of the woman, with
refinement as a fundamental quality. In developing
this last paragraph employ hints of the person's
tastes which you find indicated in her surroundings.
Imagine what some of her habits must be. Invent
incidents to show her tastes or habits. In studying
the personal appearance of this woman, note the
attitude of the body, details of dress, the position of
the hands, the expression and general contour of
the face.
Find other pictures containing the motive of
character-description.
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i6o Composition and Rhetoric
io6. The Description of Mode of Life.— Mo-
TIVE IV. Unity of effect is gained in the following
quotations by making a single quality fundamental
to the description :
A. Mode of Life of an Individual.
Model
No lifCy my honest scholar/ no life so happy and so
pleasant^ as the life of a well-governed angler; for when
the lawyer is swallowed up with business, — and the
statesman is preventing, or contriving, plots, — then, we
sit on cowslip-banks, hear the birds sing, and possess
ourselves in as much quietness as these silent silver
streams, which we now see glide so quietly by us.
Indeed, my good scholar, we may say of angling — as
Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, "Doubtless God could
have made a better berry, but doubtless God never
did "; and so, if I might be judge, — ^^God never did make
a morecalm^ quiet ^ innocent recreation^ than angling*'
— IzAAK Walton and Charles Cotton,
The Complete Angler.
Analysis of the Model
1. The paragraph structure is the same as in Description-
motive /. Prove this statement.
2. The materials used to develop the fundamental quality
are :
The customary actions of an individual. What is the funda-
mental quality ? What are the actions mentioned in this model ?
3. The devices used in the handling of the material :
Find a direct quotation.
B, Mode of Life of a Community.
Model
They [the peasants of the Valais] cb not understand
so much as the name of beauty ^ or of knowledge. They
understand dimly that of virtue. Love, patience, hospi-
tality, faith, — these things they know. To glean their
meadows side by side, so happier ; to bear the burden
up the breathless mountain flank, unmurmuringly ; to
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The Descriptive Paragraph i6i
bid the stranger drink from their vessel of milk ; to see
at the foot of their low deathbeds a pale figure upon a
cross, dying also, patiently ; — in this they are different
from the cattle and from the stones, but in all this
unrewarded so far as concerns the present life. For
them, there is neither hope nor passion of spirit ; for
them neither advance nor exultation. Black bread,
rude roof, dark night, laborious day, weary arm at sun-
set; and life ebbs away. No books, no thoughts, no
attainments, no rest ; except only sometimes a little sit-
ting in the sun under the church wall, as the bell tolls
thin and far in the mountain air ; a pattering of a few
prayers, not understood, by the altar rails of the dimly
gilded chapel, and so back to the somber home^ with the
cloud upon them still unbroken — that cloud of rocky
gloom, born out of the wild torrents and ruinous stones,
and unlightened, even in their religion, except by the
vague promise of some better thing unknown.
— John Ruskin, Modern Painters, Vol, IV.
Analysis of the Model
1. The paragraph structure t's the same as that of De scrip-
tion-motive I,
2. The materials used are :
The habits, occupations, or tastes of a community. What is
the fundamental quality? What details mentioned enforce this?
What are the habits and occupations of this community ?
3. The devices used in the handling of material are :
a. Enumeration.
b. Metaphor.
These two new devices used in the mentioning of details are
explained in the next section.
107. Other Devices for Giving Vividness to
Detail. We have found in the last description
quoted two new devices for the vivifying of detail —
enumeration and metaphor.
I. Enumeration. By the term enumeration we
mean the mere cataloguing of a number of items,
generally with a summarizing word, these or suchy
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1 62
Composition and Rhetoric
at the end. The examples of enumeration in the
description from Ruskin, in section io6, are :
love,
patience,
hospitality,
these things they know.
to glean their meadows side by side, so
happier ;
to bear the burden up the breathless moun-
tain flank, unmurmurinely ;
to bid the stranger drink from their vessel
of milk ;
to see at the foot of their low deathbeds a
pale figure upon a cross, dying also,
patiently ; —
in this
they are
dififerent
from the
cattle
and
from the
stones;
black bread,
rude roof,
dark night,
laborious day,
weary arm at sunset ;
y and life ebbs away.
Suggestion. — Find another example of enumeration in the
passage from Ruskin in section 106.
2. Metaphor, When we speak of one object in
terms of another, we are using the metaphor.
When Tennyson says that a certain woman, men-
tioned in one of his poems, is " a rosebud set with
little wilful thorns," he is calling a woman by the
name of a flower. When Longfellow calls the stars
" the forget-me-nots of the angels," he is speaking
of one object as if it were another. The metaphor
is a simile (see § 100) with the word of similarity, like,
as, so, similar to, resembling, compared to, etc., left out.
Examples :
"And this saxn^jlower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying."
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The Descriptive Paragraph 163
" I must go seek some dew-drops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear''
" I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent^ but only-
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other."
"This is the state of man : to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope ^ to-morrow blossoms
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him ;
The third day comes a frosty a killing frost.
And, — when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening, — nips his root.
And then he falls as I do."
Suggestions. — Find three metaphors in the quotation from
Ruskin in section 106. Are they effective ?
108. Confusion of Images. In writing meta-
phors we must be careful not to change the image.
We must keep one comparison in mind and be con-
sistent with it throughout the sentence ; otherwise,
we shall be using mixed metaphors, which assign to
an object or idea incompatible attributes, and thus
confuse the picture in the mind of the reader or
listener. The image changes in the following
mixed metaphors:
" The chariot of Revolution is rolling and gnashing
its teeth as it rolls."
"To take arms against a sea of trouble."
When we speak of Revolution as rolling we make
it a chariot, but when we say that it gnashes its
teeth, we suggest that it is an animal, and are, there-
fore, inconsistent in our conception of revolution.
When we say of trouble that we will take arms
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164 Compositioft and Rhetoric
against it, we make it an army. When we call it a
sea, in the same sentence, we have confused our
mental image.
109. Pictures Containing Mode of Life. De-
scribe the picture facing page 268, using for the first
paragraph a situation ; for the second, a description
of the mode of life of the shepherdess, with monotony
as a fundamental quality. Supply details merely
suggested to your imagination by the picture.
Before writing these paragraphs, answer the follow-
ing questions : Why does the shepherdess stand with
her back to her charge? Is she doing anything
besides watching her sheep? Does she seem to be
interested in the landscape? Is there anything in the
landscape to interest her? What do you imagine
her home life to be? How does she spend her eve-
nings? To what class in society does she belong?
What is her nationality? Of what country was
Jean Frangois Millet? What phases of life did he
depict? Can you tell from a list of the titles of his
paintings whether he was interested in the labor of
the country or of the city ?
Find other pictures containing material for a
description of the mode of life of an individual.
What situation element is given by the title of
the picture facing page 294? Must any of the situ-
ation elements be supplied by you ? Is the climate
warm here? What in the picture shows this? What
effect may a warm climate have upon the mode of
life of the people ? What does the architecture of
the buildings show about the life of the inhabitants?
Why are the people gathered out of doors in this
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The Descriptive Paragraph 165
way? What do you imagfine to be the appearance of
the inside of their honoies? Is this a village? Are
the buildings residences or places of business? Is
this a holiday scene? What are the occupations
of the people of Algeria? What is their character
and history?
The encyclopedia may help you to answer some
of these questions.
Write a description of the picture, using for the
first paragraph a situation ; for the second, a descrip-
tion of the mode of life of this community, with
shiftlessness as a fundamental quality.
Find other pictures that give the mode of life of
a community.
no. The Description of an Occasion or Assem-
blage.— Motive V. The unity of the following
description is secured by the use of a fundamental
quality :
Model
On a bright October day, when the air is full of
golden sunshine, there is nothing quite so exhilarating as
going nutting. .... I like to see a crowd of boys
swarm over a chestnut-grove; they leave a desert
behind them like the seventeen-years locusts. To climb
a tree and shake it, to club it, to strip it of its fruit and
pass to the next, is the sport of a brief time. I have
seen a legion of boys scamper over our grass-plot under
the chestnut-trees, each one as active as if he were a
new patent picking-machine, sweeping the ground clean
of nuts, and disappear over the hill before I could go to
the door and speak to them about it. Indeed, I have
noticed that boys don't care much for conversation with
the owners of fruit-trees. They could speedily make
their fortunes if they would work as rapidly in cotton-
fields.
— Charles Dudley Warner, Being a Boy.
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1 66 Composition and Rhetoric
Analysis of the Model
1. Tfie paragraph structure is the same as in Description-
motive I, Prove this statement.
2. The materials used are :
The actions, or feelings (given briefly), of several persons.
What is the fundamental quality ? Do the details selected enforce
this quality ?
3. TAe devices used in the handling of the material :
Find two similes.
III. Description of Occasions in Pictures.
Describe the picture facing page 316. Use for the
first paragraph a situation ; for the second, a descrip-
tion of an occasion or assemblage, with excitement
as a fundamental quality. Supply any of the situa-
tion elements that are lacking.
It will be necessary to consult the encyclopedia
for information in regard to the Circus Maximus
and Roman chariot racing. Who took part in these
races? What were the prizes offered? On what
occasions did chariot racing take place? Where
was the Circus Maximus and what is the meaning
of its name? How does the painter contrive to
express in this picture the intense effort of the
horses and drivers?
In order to write an interesting paragraph on this
picture, you may find it necessary to individualize
some of the charioteers or members of the audience,
giving these persons names. It will be helpful also
to read other famous descriptions of occasions simi-
lar to this, such as the chariot race in Ben Hur and
the boat race in Tom Brown at Oxford. All descrip-
tions of combats, whether between individuals or
numbers, may be classed under this heading of
occasions. Find other pictures that treat of occasions.
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The Descriptive Paragraph 167
112. The Description of a Conversation, Ser-
mon, Oration, Boo^ etc— Motive VI. Unity of
effect is secured in each of the three models which
follow in this section, by assigning a fundamental
quality to the object described.
A. Description of a Sermon.
Model
The sermon was a noisy and rather inconsequential
effort. The preacher had little to say, but he roared
that little out in a harsh, unmusical voice, accompanied
by much slapping of his hands and pounding of the
table. Towards the end he lowered his voice and began
to play upon the feelings of his willing hearers, and
when he had won his meed of sobs and tears, when he
had sufficiently probed old wounds and made them
bleed afresh, when he had conjured up dead sorrows
from the grave, when he had obscured the sun of heavenly
hope with the vapors of earthly griefs he sat down, sat-
tsfied, —Paul Lawrence Dunbar, The Uncalled.
Analysis of the Model
1. The paragraph structure is the same as in Motive /.
2. The material used to develop the fundamental quality:
The manner of the speaker. His style of speech. The effect on
his listeners. His subject-matter.
What is the fundamental quality? In what sentence is the
manner of the speaker described? His style?
3. Devices used in the handling of material :
Three metaphors. Find them.
B, Description of a Conversation.
Model
There is no entertainment so full of quiet pleasure as
the hearing a lady of cultivation and refinement relate
her day's experience in her daily rounds of calls, chari-
table visits, shopping, errands of relief and condolence.
The evening budget is better than the finance minister's.
. . . I don't mean gossip, by any means, or scandal.
A woman of culture skims over that like a bird, never
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l68 Composition and Rhetoric
touching it with the tip of a wing. What she brings
home is the freshness and brightness of life. She
touches everything so daintily, she hits off a character
in a sentence, she gives the pith of a dialogue without
tediousness, she mimics without vulgarity; her narra-
tion sparkles, but it doesn't sting. The picture of her
day is full of vivacity, and it g^ves new value and fresh-
ness to common things. If we could only have on the
stage such actresses as we have in the drawing room !
— Charles Dudley Warner, Backlog Studies,
Analysis of the Model
1. The paragraph structure and the material used in this
paragraph are the same as in the above description of a sermon.
Prove this statement. What is the fundamental quality ? Do
all the details chosen enforce this quality ?
2. Devices used in the handling of material:
Two comparisons, a simile and two metaphors. Find them.
C, Description of an Author's Work.
Sometimes description is used in place of expla-
nation, or exposition (Part IV.), in giving one's im-
pressions of a book or author with which the reader
is supposed to be familiar.
Model
The excellence of Burns is, indeed, among the rarest,
whether in poetry or prose; but, at the same time, it is
plain and easily recognized: his Sincerity, his indisput-
able air of Truth, Here are no fabulous woes or joys ;
no hollow, fantastic sentimentalities ; no wire-drawn
refinings, either in thought or feeling : the passion that
is traced before us has glowed in a living heart ; the
opinion he utters has risen in his own understanding,
and been a light to his own steps. He does not write
from hearsay, but from sight and experience ; it is the
scenes that he has lived and labored amidst that he
describes : those scenes, rude and humble as they are,
have kindled beautiful emotions in his soul, noble
thoughts, and definite resolves; and he speaks forth
what is in him, not from any outward call of vanity or
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The Descriptive Paragraph 169
interest, but because his heart is too full to be silent.
He speaks it with such melody and modulation as he
can ; " in homely rustic jingle " ; but it is his own, and
genuine. This is the grand secret for finding readers
and retaining them : let hinu who would move and con-
vince other Sy be first moved and convinced himself ,
— Thomas Carlyle, Essay on Burns.
Analysis of the Model
1. The paragraph structure is ike same as in Motive I.
2. The material used is : the author's subject-matter in gen-
eral ; the spirit of his writings ; his style
. 3. Devices used in handling of material : Three metaphors.
113. Pictures Suggesting Motive VI. Describe
in the form of a situation the picture facing page 336.