of God? What different emotions are stirred in these men by the grandeur of the spectacle? Exercises 1. Try to find a description of a forest as given by a botanist or a naturalist, and note the things which are mentioned. Find a literary treatment, either prose or poetry, of the same subject, and note the things referred to in it. Compare these different descriptions and consider whether the personal interest of these writers is apparent from what they say. Consider the things which would interest a speculator or a lumberman, and make a list of those which he would be likely to mention if he were writing of the forest. 2. Find poems or short quotations to illustrate literary treatments of the dandelion, and note what is said in each about this common flower. From your own knowledge of the subject give the comments which a gardener or a farmer might make upon this same flower. 3. Make outlines to indicate the thoughts which might be suggested by the sight of a ripening field of grain, (1) to a farmer, (2) to a poet or an artist, and compare them with the outlines made by other pupils. 4. Using an outline arranged by the teacher from those brought into class, write upon this subject, taking either the point of view of the farmer or of the poet. If you select the latter view, read Biblical and literary references to ripening grain. 5. Poets, as well as zoologists and naturalists, make frequent references to the birds. Sometimes it is the brilliant plumage, sometimes the song, or some particular characteristic which attracts the poet, and he watches and listens to the birds because of the enjoyment he derives from so doing. It is not his purpose to gain information in order to add to scientific knowledge; hence he does not speak of the birds in the same way as the naturalist does, who observes them that he may gain some new information or confirm the observations of others, and who usually writes that he may give to others the knowledge he has acquired. The lark and the nightingale, because of their beautiful notes, are the favorites with English poets; and the bobolink is perhaps the chief favorite with our American poets. As you read and compare what the naturalist and the poet say about these and other birds, you will find that the poet is not concerned with the particular bird family to which each belongs, nor with the size, form, and habits of these birds as matters of information. When these are mentioned it is only that they may be used in making comparisons and illustrating universal truths. Read what some naturalist says of the bobolink, noting the things mentioned and the facts given, as a basis for comparing the way in which he speaks of this bird with what the poets say of it. 6. Select literary references to the bobolink and name the qualities or characteristics which are mentioned. In addition to short references the following or other available selections may be read: "The Bobolink," by Irving (prose); "Robert of Lincoln," by Bryant; "The O'Lincoln Family," by Wilson Flagg. 7. Read what the zoologists and naturalists say of the English lark and the nightingale. Note the information which they give, and upon what points the interest chiefly centers. 8. Select literary allusions to these birds to be discussed and compared in class with the statements of naturalists. In addition to the many short references you will find, the following may be read: "To the Skylark - Wordsworth; "The - James Hogg; "To the Skylark"-Shelley. Skylark" "To the Nightingale" - Drummond; "Philomena " Matthew Arnold; "The Nightingale's Song" from "Music's Duel" Richard Crashaw; "To the Nightingale". Milton. 9. In your study of the above consider to what extent the personal interest of a writer determines his view-point. What does the naturalist mention which the poet does not, and what allusion does the poet make which the other does not? When they both mention the same thing do they speak of it in the same way? Illustrate this point. Which states or explains what he sees and hears, and which speaks about the things and the ideas that are suggested to him? Which method of treatment is the more interesting? Which arouses the emotions more? Which gives the more lasting enjoyment? 10. Write about some bird or animal with which you are familiar, your purpose being to give information only. 11. From the point of view of a hunter write one or two paragraphs as suggested by the sight of a flock of wild geese flying southward. From the point of view of the naturalist write upon the same. 66 12. Read The Waterfowl," by Bryant, and explain what was suggested to the poet by the sight of the bird winging its distant flight. 13. Find other poems in which the thought of God's guidance or protection is suggested by the phenomena of nature. SECTION XXXIV Point of View determined by Purpose The purpose of a writer in describing things, narrating events, or presenting ideas will usually determine his method of presentation and the use he will make of his material. When it is his purpose to impart information, he will present the facts clearly and accurately, with no further thought than to give to others the knowledge which he possesses. When it is his purpose to teach some universal truth or to stir the emotions, he will make use of various facts and incidents, not to give information about them, but by means of them to illustrate or impress this truth or to arouse the emotions. Fable and allegory are written for the express purpose of impressing truths; fiction and poetry are often made to serve the same end; and all literature, rightly so called, is intended as an appeal to the emotions. Historical and Literary Treatments of an Event Compared. The account of some historical event or scientific discovery, and a literary treatment of the same thing will illustrate how the writer's purpose determines the character of his writing. Read a historical account of the battle of Waterloo; and then carefully examine the following selections, to see how the novelist and the poet have made use of the incidents and the outcome of this great conflict, to present and emphasize certain ideas and to arouse the emotions. THE CHARGE UPON THE PLATEAU OF MONT ST. JEAN Nothing like it had been seen since the capture of the great redoubt of the Moskova by the heavy cavalry: Murat was missing, but Ney was there. It seemed as if this heavy mass had become a monster, and had but one soul; each squadron undulated, and swelled like the rings of a polype. This could be seen through a vast smoke which was rent asunder at intervals; it was a pell-mell of helmets, shouts, and sabers, a stormy bounding of horses among cannon, and a disciplined and terrible array; above it all flashed the cuirasses like the scales of a dragon. Such narratives seem to belong to another age; something like this vision was doubtless in the Orphean epics describing the men-horses, the ancient hippanthropists, those Titans with human faces and equestrian chests, whose gallop scaled Olympus, - horrible, sublime, invulnerable beings, gods and brutes. Behind the crest of the plateau, in the shadow of the masked battery, thirteen English squares, each of two battalions and formed two deep, with seven men in the first lines, and six in the second, were waiting, calm, dumb, and motionless, with their muskets, for what was coming. They did not see the cuirassiers, and the cuirassiers did not see them; they merely heard this tide of men ascending. They heard the swelling sound of three thousand horses, the alternating and symmetrical sound of the hoof, the clang of the cuirasses, the clash of the sabers, and a species of great and formidable breathing. There was a long and terrible silence, and then a long file of raised arms, brandishing sabers, and helmets and bugles and standards, and three thousand heads with great mustaches shouting, "Long live the Emperor!" appeared above the crest. All at once, terrible to relate, the head of the column of cuirassiers facing the English left reared with a fearful clamor. On reaching the culminating point of the crest, furious and eager to make their exterminating dash upon the English squares, appeared a trench-a grave. It was the sunken road of Ohain. It was a frightful moment, the ravine was there, unexpected, yawning, almost precipitous, beneath the horses' feet and with a depth of twelve feet between its sides. The second rank thrust the first into the abyss; the horses reared, fell back, slipped with four feet in the air, crushing and throwing their riders. There was no means of escaping; the entire column was one huge projectile. The force acquired to crush the English, crushed the French, and the inexorable |