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For some were sunk and many were shattered, and so could fight us

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God of battles, was ever a battle like this in the world before?"

What is the poet's intention in repeating "ship after ship, the whole night long"? Plainly not to emphasize the idea of "ships," but to impress upon us the feelings of unrelieved strain of the narrator, as during that interminable night ship after ship of the Spanish navy came to the attack.

The purpose of the study of Repetition is to impress upon the student that great artists have a definite purpose in every effect. Using the last illustration as an example, we see that the repetition arises from the emotion of the speaker as he contemplates that apparently never-ending struggle. What the reader will then manifest is not the "ship after ship" idea, as such, but through the monotony of melody and significant quality of voice, the spirit of the speaker.

CHAPTER XII.

TONE-COLOR.

ALL singers and speakers have been more or less conscious that certain sounds are better adapted than others for the expression of particular emotions. It is the purpose of this chapter to discuss this phase of literary art and of vocal expression. We have virtually to prove that artists in language prefer one element of speech to another because of the sound. If this be proved, it will certainly have great value for the student of vocal expression. Two points must be remembered: First, that we have many more sounds in the language than letters. Each of these sounds is called an element, and we shall use that word instead of letter throughout this discussion. In the second place, it must be borne in mind that although an artist may prefer one element to another, there is no excuse for the sacrifice of sense to sound. No combination of sounds without sense can possibly be literature. Yet, on the other hand, there are many words with which to express one's meaning; and all poetry affords illustration that the poet, for a reason which we shall show later, makes more or less conscious choice between these words because of their sound. The form of literature is not an arbitrary thing, "Of the soul the body form doth take;" and tone-color is one of the elements of the form manifesting the spirit of literature. [NOTE 1.]

Literature contains two elements, the intellectual and the emotional. The intellectual part is that which deals with facts, for in the most ethereal poetry there must be a substantial basis. The intellectual side of literature deals with particulars, details. The contemplation of facts stimulates, under certain conditions, the poet's imagination; and that in turn stimulates his emotions. Now, the stirring of the poet's imagination is manifested in the language, style, and form in which his thought is clothed. Hence, it is our purpose to analyze literature in order that we may show that particular sounds or elements are uniformly used to express particular emotions. If we can show this, the reader has certainly a most subtle yet sure cue for emotional rendition. Poetry is written to be read aloud. The poet listens to his verse as it rises in his brain, and his poetic insight and artistic training teach him that certain sounds are better avenues of expression for given emotions than are others. One might say that tone-color is the avenue along which the emotion passes in its progress from within outward, or from the poet to his hearer. The mere fact is expressed by the words; the emotion is expressed by the various qualities of the voice, and these qualities may be more surely and easily manifested on certain elements than on others.

Read aloud the following excerpts, and mark how the vocal expression is assisted by the italicized elements :

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'Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,

Meet, and ne'er part, till one drop down a corse."
"The least little delicate curve in aquiline nose."
"So slender Sohrab seem'd, so softly rear'd."

"The fields between

Are dewy fresh, browsed by deep-uddered kine,

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And all about, the large lime feathers low,

The lime, a summer home of murmurous wings."

"A gleam in the gloom."

"Bear back, both friend and foe."

The preceding examples were chosen to illustrate the fact that the emotion finds easier egress through the avenues of certain elements than it could have done if the author had chosen different ones. But there is another class of tone-color words to be examined before we proceed farther. We know that there are certain words in our language that are purely imitative; such words as buzz, hiss, hum, whirr, bang, boom. These words are simply the result of an attempt of early man to convey a given picture through his powers of imitation. But emotional tone-color, while it may include onomatopoeia, is a great deal more than that. Tone-color manifests the emotional effect upon the poet of that which he contemplates. Certain effects move him to emotion, and tonecolor is the avenue for the expression of that emotion. This is most significant; for failure to grasp this principle has led to a great deal of misunderstanding in the discussion of this subject. We may define tone-color, then, as the inherent quality of vowels and consonants that adapts them for the vocal presentation of thought and emotion. Tone-color is simply an elocutionary possibility. It would be foolish to claim that every letter has some settled meaning every time it is uttered; but it is to be noted that when one desires to convey a given emotion, certain combinations of vowels and consonants are better adapted for that expression than any others the author could find.

[NOTE 2.]

An objection frequently urged is that tone-color is subjective, not objective; that it is not apparent except the reader make it so; that it has not the definiteness of language itself. It is held as an objection that if one utters the word "tree," the audience understands what is meant, and would never mistake "tree" for "house; but an audience does not understand t and k and m and 0. One answer to this has already been anticipated. It was stated above that tone-color was simply an elocutionary possibility. We can all agree that m lends itself to the expression of quiet and calm better than do t and k and P, but it is not claimed that m always indicates calmness and tranquillity. There are other answers to the objection above cited: First, poetry is written to be read aloud, or to be heard in imagination; hence, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, and so forth. If rhyme is not to strike the ear, why do we rhyme? If rhythm is not to be heard, one might as well write in prose as in verse. It is perhaps useless to enlarge upon this any farther. The man who is born deaf must necessarily miss many of the graces of poetic art; and to him who has never developed himself to appreciate the aesthetics of sound, much of literature is a closed book. Hence, we may conclude, in the second place, that those who do not hear as well as see lose a large element of pleasure in reading poetry, and often of the author's intention. In the third place, if there is nothing in tone-color, how can we account for the regular predominance of particular sounds in nearly all poetry where like emotions are expressed? It seems to me that this is an insuperable argument. Of course tone-color is subjective; but so is rhythm, and no one denies that rhythm is a tangible element of verse

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