This story is told in so simple and direct a way that it can be readily understood without questions. SUGGESTIONS FOR ORAL AND WRITTEN ENGLISH THEME SUBJECTS In which of the stories you have read so far, is there much conversation? In Zenobia's Infidelity does the boy talk to the doctor naturally? Does he say what is necessary for his purpose, and no more? In How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox, how much of the story is in conversation? Does it add to the interest? When writing dialogue, i.e. a conversation between two, for a play, do not write “he said,” or similar terms, as you would in the case of novels or short stories. Each time there is a change of speaker, write the speaker's name on the left on a new line and follow it with a colon, then begin the speech as you would begin a sentence. Try to have your speakers express themselves naturally. Perhaps you can give a conversation you have overheard in some public place. Write in the form of dialogues the indicated conversations between the giant and the pilgrims, and the giant and his wife. Write their names under the heading Characters. Take each episode after you have written the dialogue and write the place, the time, and a heading for the episode, as, for example, Act I., Doubting Castle, — Early Morning. Can you make a complete outline of four acts? Try to do the same in Hop O' My Thumb, or Jack the Giant Killer, or any similar fairy tale. SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL READINGS From The Pilgrim's Progress: The Slough of Despond. Mr. Great Heart. At the House Beautiful. The Great Stone Face (in The Snow Image). Nathaniel Hawthorne. Dr. Heidegger's Experiment (in Twice-Told Tales). Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Man Without a Country. Edward Everett Hale. The Dawn of To-morrow. Frances Hodgson Burnett. SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE1 JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER The Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He received only two years of academic training. He edited and contributed to newspapers for over twenty years, and published during that time many volumes of poems. Snow Bound is a perfect picture of a New England country home. See also: Halleck's History of American Literature, pp. 234-244, 284. Perry's John Greenleaf Whittier. His Pickard's Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier; and WhittierLand. 1. Of all the rides, since the birth of time, Told in story or sung in rime On Apuleius's Golden Ass,2 Or one-eyed Calendar's horse of brass,3 Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart, 1 This poem is used by permission of, and by arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, authorized publishers of Whittier's works. 2 The Golden Ass, the most celebrated book of Apuleius, a Roman philosopher of the second century A.D. A story from Arabian Nights Entertainments. 4 Mohammed. 5 A wondrous animal on which Mohammed rode from Mecca to Jerusalem. 2. Body of turkey, head of owl, Wings a-droop like a rained-on fowl, 3. Wrinkled scolds with hands on hips, 4. With conch-shells blowing and fish-horns' twang, "Here's Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt, Torr'd an' futherr'd an' corr'd in a corrt Small pity for him! - he sailed away Brag of your catch of fish again!" And off he sailed through the fog and rain! 1 The god of wine. 2 Priestesses of Bacchus who became frenzied when they danced in his train. 3 An inlet in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Old Floyd Ireson, for his hard heart, 5. Fathoms deep in dark Chaleur 6. Through the street, on either side, And cracked with curses the hoarse refrain: 7. Sweetly along the Salem road Of the fields so green and the sky so blue. Like an Indian idol glum and grim, Scarcely he seemed the sound to hear "Here's Flud Oirson, fur his horrd horrt, 8. "Hear me, neighbors!" at last he cried - What is the shame that clothes the skin And hear a cry from a reeling deck! The hand of God and the face of the dead!" 9. Then the wife of the skipper lost at sea |