" Find other examples of bold or concise and
illuminating utterance.
5. Read Appendix 3 (Parable of the Sower). It has no special audacities of
phrase, but escapes tameness in various ways--largely through its simple
earnestness.
6. Make a list of the descriptive phrases in Appendix 4 (The Seven Ages of
Man) through which Shakespeare gives life and distinctness to his
pictures.
7. Study Appendix 5 (The Castaway) as a piece of homely, effective
narrative. (Defoe wrote for the man in the street. He was a literary
jack-of-all-trades whom dignified authors of his day would not
countenance, but who possessed genius.) It relies upon directness and
plausibility of substance and style rather than temerity of phrase. Yet it
never sags into tameness. Notice how everyday expressions ("My business
was to hold my breath," "I took to my heels") add subtly to our belief
that what Defoe is telling us is true. Notice also that such expressions
("the least capful of wind," "half dead with the water I took in," "ready
to burst with holding my breath") without being pretentious may yet be
forceful. Notice finally the naturalness and lift of the sinewy idioms ("I
fetched another run," "I had no clothes to shift me," "I had like to have
suffered a second shipwreck," "It wanted but a little that all my cargo
had slipped off").
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