Full on this casement shone the wintry moon,
And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast,
As down she knelt for heaven's grace and boon ;
Rose-bloom fell on her hands, together prest,
And on her silver cross soft amethyst,
And on her hair a glory, like a saint :
She seem'd a splendid angel, newly drest,
Save wings, for heaven: Porphyro grew faint:
She knelt, so pure a thing, so free from mortal taint.
— JOHN KEATS, The Eve of St. Agnes.

SUGGESTIONS.-The light is here represented as shining through a stained glass window. What items of Madeline's appearance are mentioned by showing the effect of light upon them?

The second paragraph has not only unity of impression but unity of handling, and thus economizes our attention.

132. Outline of the Fundamental Devices Used. The following is a list of the fundamental devices given in sections 133-150:

I.

1. The cataloguing of the details of what is described. (See § 133.)

2. The localizing of details.

3. The fundamental image.

4.

(See § 134.)

(See § 135.)

The series of images. (See § 136.)

5. The personification of details. (See § 137.)

6. The effect of light, cold, etc., upon the details of a picture. (See § 138.)

7. The effect on the observer or listener. (See $139.)

8. The giving of directions for getting a conception of a person, place, etc. (See § 140.)

9.

Obverse description. (See § 141.)

IO. Audible thought as a device. (See § 142.)

II. The use of a general reflection to introduce a description. (See § 143.)

12. The single contrast making up the whole description. (See § 144.)

13. The use of a series of contrasts. (See § 145.) 14. The single analogy or comparison making up the whole description. (See § 146.)

15.

$147.)

The series of analogies or comparisons. (See

16. Dialogue. (See § 148.)

17. Vision. (See § 149.)

18. Apostrophe. (See § 150.)

133. Fundamental Device I. THE CATALOGUING OF DETAILS. The simplest method of handling details is that of mere enumeration, of which the following is an example:

A. MODEL.

The whitewashed walls, the little pews where wellknown figures entered with a subdued rustling, and where first one well-known voice and then another, pitched in a peculiar key of petition, uttered phrases at once occult and familiar, like the amulet worn on the heart; the pulpit where the minister delivered unquestioned doctrine, and swayed to and fro, and handled the book in a long-accustomed manner; the very pauses between the couplets of the hymn, as it was given out, and the recurrent swell of voices in song; these things had been the channel of divine influences to Marner. - GEORGE ELIOT, Silas Marner.

SUGGESTION. What are the details catalogued?

Minor devices used. Find a simile; a metaphor.

B. EXAMPLE FOR ANALYSIS.

Ichabod arrived at the castle of the Heer Van Tassel, which he found thronged with the pride and flower of the adjacent country. Old farmers, a spare leathernfaced race, in homespun coats and breeches, blue stockings, huge shoes, and magnificent pewter buckles.

Their brisk withered little dames, in close-crimped caps, long-waisted short gowns, homespun petticoats, with scissors and pin cushions, and gay calico pockets hanging on the outside. Buxom lasses, almost as antiquated as their mothers, excepting where a straw hat, a fine ribbon, or perhaps a white frock, gave symptoms of city innovation. The sons, in short square-skirted coats with rows of stupendous brass buttons, and their hair generally queued in the fashion of the times, especially if they could procure an eelskin for the purpose, it being esteemed, throughout the country, as a potent nourisher and strengthener of the hair.

– WASHINGTON IRVING, The Sketch-Book.

SUGGESTIONS.-What are the items catalogued in this example? What is the description-motive and what the fundamental quality ? Minor devices used. Find a metaphor.

Exercise

Write a paragraph describing the appearance of a person and use the device of enumeration. Observe the law in regard to the first, last, and intervening sentences (see §99) in this and all other paragraphs you are asked to write in this chapter.

134. Fundamental Device II.-LOCALIZING OF DETAILS. This device is perhaps the most common of all. The first impulse of the mind is merely to perceive the details, as in section 133, and the next is to give them “a local habitation."

Perhaps there is no more impressive scene on earth than the solitary extent of the Campagna of Rome under evening light. Let the reader imagine himself for a moment withdrawn from the sounds and motion of the living world, and sent forth alone into this wild and wasted plain. The earth yields and crumbles beneath his foot, tread he never so lightly, for its