CHAPTER X. CO-ORDINATE STATEMENTS. THESE are simply a number of level affirmative statements strung together; and all that is necessary in reading them is clear articulation and sensible pauses. Care should, at the same time, be taken not to let the voice degenerate into sing-song, nor to commit the opposite fault of jerkiness, nor to read off the roll of statements like an ordinary list. None of these faults will be committed, if the reader has the proper feeling with regard to the passage he is reading. This feeling can be best created by the teacher, by means of well-put questions on each passage. No foot Fitz-James in stirrup staid,' No grasp upon the saddle laid, But wreathed his left hand in the mane, SCOTT. 'Tis sweet to hear the watchdog's honest bark, "Tis sweet to be awakened by the lark, BYRON. Of subtle fire; the wind blows cold Many a note and many a lay. Fled now BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. the sullen murmurs of the north. Delight still more and more the gazing eye. Or sweets from frequent showers and evening dews; He the gay garden round about doth fly, Yet none of them he rudely doth disorder, 1. These lines must be read with speed, but also with distinct articulation. There are no pauses necessary, except those indicated by the points; and this is a thing very rarely found in any six lines of verse. 2. That is, dug his spur into his sides. (To p. 59.) 1. Erst, before. 2. The frequent showers and evening dews show that it is time to begin ploughing. 3. The accent is on the last syllable--survéy—in accordance with the older usage. THESE are generally long sentences, in which the chief or most important statement is kept till the very end. They are very difficult to read, and require long and steady practice. The purpose of them is to keep back for as long as possible the object or notion which the writer wishes to impress upon the reader, and then to reveal it with a certain suddenness. This effect, then, the reader must try to produce; he must read the earlier parts of a sentence in a clear and distinct, but level utterance, and then, when he comes to the close, impress the main idea upon his listeners by a very slow, full, and solemn style of speaking. 1. 2. 3. Leaves have their time to fall,1 to wither at the north wind's breath, seasons for thine own, O Death! Near yonder copse, where once the garden smiled, Many are the shapes Of Death, and many are the ways that lead MILTON. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Those gentle hours that plenty bade to bloom,' He thrice essayed to speak, and thrice, in spite of scorn, Him shall no sunshine from the fields of azure," MILTON. No morning gun from the black fort's embrasure, Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore Of that vast Ocean7 you must sail so soon; sat. A SHIP LEAVING THE HARBOUR. 9. Where lies the land to which yon ship must go? Fresh as a lark mounting at break of day, 9 Festively she puts forth in trim array: nor foe Is she for tropic suns or polar snow? 10. WORDSWORTH, THE UNIVERSAL LEVELLER. Fate! fortune! chance! 10 whose blindness, Plays such strange freaks with human destinies, The life-diseased and healthy, SUSPENSIVE STATEMENTS. The blessed, the cursed, the witless, and the wise, Ye have a master-one Who mars what ye have done, that move beneath the sun,— Levelling all Death! HORACE SMITH. 11. 12. EDINBURGH. When sated1 with the martial show For, on the smoke wreaths, huge and slow, The morning beams were shed, And tinged them with a lustre 3 proud, THE SOLITARY SAILOR. The mountain wooded to the peak, the lawns The lustre of the long convolvuluses had seen That coiled around the stately stems, and ran 63 |