SHORT STUDIES IN COMPOSITION CHAPTER I DESCRIPTIVE WRITING For the purpose of study, it is convenient to recognize four classes of prose writing - Description, Narration, Exposition, or explanatory writing, and Argument. Taking up Description first, let us see how the masters in literature manage it. Here, slightly abridged, is Thackeray's famous description of Beatrix Esmond: From one of these doors, a wax candle in her hand, and illuminating her, came Mistress Beatrix the light falling indeed upon the scarlet riband which she wore, and upon the most brilliant white neck in the world. She was beyond the common height. Her eyes, hair, and eyebrows and eyelashes were dark; her hair curling with rich undulations and waving over her shoulders, but her complexion was as dazzling white as snow in sunshine, except her cheeks, which were a bright red, and her lips, which were of a still deeper crimson. Her mouth and chin were large and full, her shape was perfect symmetry, and her motion, whether rapid or slow, was always perfect grace: there was no single movement of hers but was beautiful. There are several points in that description worth. noting. First, its fulness of detail. Beatrix's height, her complexion, features, the color and curl of her hair, her figure and carriage are all described. Yet in spite of the many particulars, the reader carries away one chief impression - that of her beauty. This is mentioned in the first sentence, emphasized in the third, and summed up at the end. Noteworthy, also, is the order Description by enumera- in which the details are given. If Beatrix were standing before you, you would note all these details at once. But the writer must put them in one by one what shall he put first? Thackeray gives first the broad outlines of the picture, then fills in the detail. tion. Read the description again, and note that you first get an image of her figure as a whole, then come the particulars. Description of this kind, which gives many particulars about an object, is called description by enumeration. But it is not necessary to give many details in order to present a clear image to the reader. Here, for example, is a sketch by Rudyard Kipling : I was afraid of Miss McKenna. She was six feet high, all yellow freckles and red hair, and was simply clad in white satin shoes, a pink muslin dress, an apple-green stuff sash and black silk gloves, with yellow roses in her hair. Even briefer is this: |