Exercises in Criticizing Dramatization 399 2. A brother does his best to waken Dick, who said last night he wished to go on a walking trip to the country. 3. Two girls find it hard to decide where to spend the afternoon. One wishes to go to the Zoo, the other thinks she would like to visit the Art Museum. 4. Two girls are on the beach at Atlantic City. They discover a turtle, and endeavor to capture it. 5. Dramatize Sohrab and Rustum. 6. Take any narrative and put it into dramatic form. 7. Write an original scene for two or three characters. Put it in shape for presentation, including proper and definite stage directions, instructions for costumes, and all instructions for playing it. (c) Longer Play. - Under the direction of the editorial committee, let three or more students, selected for their skill in dramatization, design a play for presentation in public, either as a class play, or for the benefit of the school. Name one of the editorial committee as editor-in-chief, with the other members as close assistants and advisers. Let this draft be in scenario form, outlining each scene, but with no dialogue. 1. Prepare the first draft in scenario form. Criticize this with the utmost care. 2. On the acceptance of the first draft, carefully rewritten, the editorial committee may direct the dramatic writers to put in the dialogue. Subject this to most careful criticism. NOTE. As a special reward for the work the editorial committee has done, the members of this committee may prepare this play themselves. Articles of Magazine Length.1 — Pupils of advanced grade who have displayed marked ability in English are now to attempt work which is more definitely the product of investigation and study. You 1 This kind of work will require “ability to gather valuable information on the scale of the magazine article and make it pleasantly available to others, employing a working knowledge of the more commonly recognized principles of effectiveness, and of the rules of correctness.". - From the Report of the National Joint Committee on the Reorganization of High School English. Now venture on ar have so far resolutely kept within small space. ticles of one to two thousand words; and, after meeting the require ments of the editorial committee, on longer articles. These may include expository outlines or themes; debate, parliamentary usage; related letters, short articles on popular topics, and if these are acceptable, gradually increasing their length; editorials, scientific descriptions, and short stories. But in each case, prune your work vigorously. CHAPTER XXIX FIGURES OF SPEECH In figures, we see one thing in another. — ARISTOTLE. Figurative Language. Language may be either literal or figurative. If it is addressed to the understanding alone, it is usually said to be literal. If it seeks to appeal to the taste or to the imagination, as well as to the understanding, it is often figurative. Figurative language seeks not alone to convey a meaning, but to make that meaning agreeable or forcible. Speaking literally, we may say that a soldier fought fearlessly. Or we may say that he fought like a lion. Expressing it still more vividly we may say that he was a lion in the fight. The latter two expressions are figurative. Important Figures. Of the many kinds of figures, the three most important are personification, simile, and metaphor. Personification. In personification, we speak of inanimate objects or of ideas as having life, and of these and the lower animals as possessing the feelings, sympathies, and intelligence of humanity. In Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, one of the most perfect poems in the language, the poet says, Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? The storied urn, the animated bust, are spoken of as calling, and the fleeting breath as unheeding, and as having deserted its mansion. Honour is personified, flattery is personified, so is dust, while the most beautiful figure is found in the concluding words of the fourth line of the quotation. Milton, in his twin odes L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, uses much personification. A study of these matchless poems is valuable for the great amount of personification in them. In Sir William Jones' beautiful poem, What Constitutes a State? (page 238) the last three lines present a notable personification of law, as the empress of the state. In Ingalls' sonnet on Opportunity, he personifies his subject. Refer also to Collins's Ode to the Passions, and to Sidney Lanier's Ballad of Trees and the Master for beautiful examples of personification. English prose abounds in this figure. Simile. Simile consists in formally likening one thing to another. It contains an expressed comparison. In simile, comparison is usually indicated by like, as, such as, and words or phrases of similar meaning. A passage of "Tam O'Shanter," by Robert Burns, has been much admired as furnishing a series of beautiful similes. But pleasures are like poppies spread, Or like the snow-fall in the river, One moment white, then lost forever; Evanishing amidst the storm ; Or like the Borealis race, That flits ere one can point the place! Sir Walter Scott's "Coronach" is well known, and beautiful. He is gone on the mountain, he is lost to the forest, Refer to Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum for a fine simile beginning, "As when some hunter," etc. Refer also to Coleridge's Ancient Mariner for beautiful similes quaintly expressed. Caution as to Simile. Similes should not be drawn from objects too near, or where the resemblance is too obvious; nor, on the other hand, from objects whose likeness is too remote. Far-fetched similes annoy rather than gratify the taste. Nor should similes be drawn from objects with which the ordinary reader or hearer is not acquainted. A toofrequent use of simile, especially in conversation, is tiresome. "gentle art" of fishing who has had at least one trial of |