Voice Lessons

Monday, May 11 th, Diction Consider: Close by the fire sat an old man whose countenance (face) was furrowed with distress. James Boswell, Boswell’s London Journal Discuss: 1. What does the word furrowed connote about the man’s distress and why? 2. How would the impact of the sentence be changed if furrowed were changed to lined?

Tuesday, May 12, Diction Consider: …then Satan first knew pain, And writh’d him to and fro convolv’d; so sore The grinding sword with discontinuous wound Passed through him. --John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book VI, lines Discuss: 1. What kind of pain do you think a grinding sword gives? 2. What does discontinuous mean? How does the use of discontinuous reinforce the idea of a grinding sword?

Wednesday, May 13 th, Diction Consider: Twenty bodies were thrown out of our wagon. Then the train resumed its journey, leaving behind it a few hundred naked dead, deprived of burial, in the deep snow of a field in Poland. Elie Wiesel, Night Discuss: 1. Wiesel never refers to the men who die on the journey as men. Instead, he refers to them as bodies or simply dead. How does his diction shape the reader’s understanding of the horror? 2. How would the meaning change if we substituted dead people for bodies? 3. Changed the italicized word below to a word that disassociates the reader from the true action of the sentence. 1. Fifteen chickens were slaughtered for the feast.

Thursday, May 14 th, Detail/Imagery Consider: Whenever he was so fortunate as to have near him a hare that had been kept too long, or a meat pie made with rancid butter, he gorged himself with such violence that his veins swelled, and the moisture broke out on his forehead. --Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson” Discuss: 1. Pick one detail and explain why it enhances the meaning of the sentence (Johnson’s manners/eating habits). When he says “X detail,” it shows Y. 2. How would the meaning of the sentence be changed by ending it after himself? 3. Write a sentence about someone with disgusting eating habits. It must be one correct sentence, and contain at least three vivid details.

Friday, May 15 th, Imagery Consider: The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie: And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I. Within the shadow of the ship I watched their rich attire: Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, They coiled and swam; and every track Was a flash of golden fire. --Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Yes, that is how he spelled “Rime.”) Discuss: 1. These stanzas reveal the Mariner’s changing attitude toward the creatures of the sea. How does he show a bitter attitude in the first stanza? 2. What is the Mariner’s attitude in the second stanza? What imagery reveals this change? 3. Think of a dog or cat that you can describe easily. First, write a description which reveals a positive attitude toward the animal. Then, think of the same animal and write a description which reveals a negative attitude. Use imagery rather than explanation to create your descriptions.