Noiselessly as the spring-time

Her crown of verdure weaves,
And all the trees on all the hills
Open their thousand leaves,-

So, without sound of music,

Or voice of them that wept,

Silently down from the mountain crown
The great procession swept.

Hush-a-bye, Lilian,
Rock to thy rest;
Be thy life, little one,
Evermore blest.

Once has the changing moor

Waned in the skies

Since little Lilian

Opened her eyes.

Once has the crescent moon

Shone in the west

On little Lilian

Taking her rest.

TIME.

Time has reference to Quantity, Rate, and Pause.

Quantity is the amount of time given to a word. It may be Natural, Long, or Short.

Natural Quantity is that usually given to words in unemotional language.

EXAMPLE.

There is one accomplishment, in particular, which I would earnestly recommend to you. Cultivate assiduously the ability to read well. Where one person is really interested by music, twenty are pleased by good reading. Where one person is capable of becoming a skillful musician, twenty may become good readers. Where there is one occasion suitable for the exercise of musical talent, there are twenty for that of good reading.

Long Quantity is used in expressing that which is grand, sublime, gloomy or horrible.

1.

EXAMPLES.

O thou Eternal One! whose presence bright
All space doth occupy, all motion guide;
Unchanged through Time's all-devastating flight;
Thou only God! There is no God beside!

2.

I had a dream which was not all a dream,

The bright sun was extinguished; and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless and nathless; and the icy earth

Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;

Morn came, and went, and came, and brought no day.

Short Quantity is used to express sentiment light, joyous, gay and brisk. It also expresses haste, fear, command, indignation, etc.

1.

2.

EXAMPLES.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,

A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath from the pebbles in passing a spark
Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Rate is the degree of rapidity or slowness with which several successive words are uttered.

Slow or Fast.

It may be Natural,

Natural Rate is that which a person naturally uses in reading or speaking.

1.

EXAMPLES.

O good painter, tell me true,

Has your hand the cunning to draw
Shapes of things that you never saw?
Ay? Well, here is an order for you.
Woods and cornfields a little brown,

The picture must not be over-bright,
Yet all in the golden and gracious light
Of a cloud when the summer sun is down.

2. What a fascination there is in really good reading! In the hospital, in the chamber of the invalid, in the nursery, in the domestic and in the social circle, among chosen friends and companions, how it enables you to minister to the amusement, the comfort, the pleasure of dear ones, as no other art or accomplishment can. No instrument of man's devising can reach the heart as does that most wonderful instrument, the human voice. It is God's special gift and endowment to his chosen creatures. Fold it not away in a napkin.

Slow Rate may denote horror and awe; it should be used in language serious, sublime, and pathetic.

I.

EXAMPLES.

By the flow of the inland river

Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver,
Asleep on the ranks of the dead :
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment day;

Under the one, the Blue,

Under the other, the Grey.

Meanwhile the shapeless iron mass
Came moving o'er the wave,
As gloomy as a passing hearse,
As silent as the grave.

Fast Rate is used to express sentiment, lively, joyous, impassioned and vehement.

1.

2.

EXAMPLES.

And see! she stirs !

She starts-she moves-she seems to feel
The thrill of life along her keel,

And, spurning with her foot the ground,
With one exulting, joyous bound,

She leaps into the ocean's arms.

Hurrah! the foes are moving! Hark to the mingled din
Of fife, and steed, and trump, and drum, and roaring culverin!
The fiery duke is pricking fast across St. André's plain,
With all the hireling chivalry of Guelders and Almayne.
Now, by the lips of those ye love; fair gentlemen of France,
Charge for the golden lilies-upon them with the lance!
A thousand spurs are striking deep, a thousand spears in rest,
A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow-white
crest,

And in they burst, and on they rushed, while, like a guiding
star,

Amidst the thickest carnage blazed the helmet of Navarre.

Pause is the suspension of the voice. Poetic and Oratorical Pauses express emotion, Rhetorical Pauses are those demanded by the sense and structure of a sentence, Grammatical Pauses are those indicated by the usual marks of punctuation, and Prosodial Pauses are those used only in verse. But in this connection it is thought best to make three divisions, viz.: Natural Pause, Long Pause, and Short Pause.

Natural Pause is used in unimpassioned language and ordinary description.

EXAMPLE.

Have you heard the tale of the Aloe plant,

Away in the sunny clime?

By humble growth of a hundred years
It reaches its blooming time;

And then a wondrous bud at its crown
Breaks into a thousand flowers;
This floral queen, in its blooming seen,
Is the pride of the tropical bowers.
But the plant to the flower is a sacrifice,
For it blooms but once, and in blooming dies.

Long Pause usually accompanies slow rate or a change of sentiment, and marks a suspension of the sense.

EXAMPLE.

Pause a moment. I heard a footstep. Listen now. I heard it again. But it is going from us. It sounds fainter-still fainter. It is gone.

Short Pause accompanies fast rate, and is characteristic of haste, fear, etc.

EXAMPLE.

John, be quick! Get some water! Throw the powder overboard! It cannot be reached! Jump into the boat, then! Shove off! There goes the powder-thank Heaven, we are safe!

STRESS.

Stress has much to do with the power, beauty and general effect of a sentence. It is that finishing, polishing touch which causes the thought to stand out in reliefthrowing it vividly upon the background, with its profile well defined, its lights and shadows harmoniously blended -rendering it complete, beautiful and symmetrical.

There are six distinct kinds of Stress, viz.: Initial, Final, Median, Compound, Thorough and Tremulous.

Initial Stress () is an explosive force on the first part of a syllable or word. It is characteristic of lively, joyous description.

EXAMPLES.

I. There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower;

2.

There's a titter of winds in that beechen tree;

There's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,
And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea.

I come from haunts of coot and hern;

I make a sudden sally,

And sparkle out among the fern,

To bicker down a valley.