The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-18
THE DECEMBER MAGAZINES.
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verse, Dy w. ~. uOWeIls, ehtitleu A'V AV'o
Lost" "a Day of Surprises" by Virginia
Vaughan, is concluded, and e. A. Stanbury
contributes a little poem entitled "Beyond."
From 1.-THE Poetry of the Alphabet" by
BENJAMIN Blood, we make the following ex-
tract as an example OF his treatment of the
l assert that the sounds represented by the
letters Of the alphabet have special aptness
in suggesting the qualities opposed to them in
the following schedule; and that the poetry,
the proverbs, the slang, and the common talk
of our people approve this assertion
A. "Far, far away, over the calm and
mantling wave'-thus begins the boys
romance. He is possessed by the poetry otthe
ooean--of vastness and space. The word ocean
is seldom used except in expression of rolling
and dashing; but the loave, the main, the east
DdterS the ,odtery ,cdste, or plain, are more
popular. Lake, straight, vate, chase, race,
trail trace, dtDay give distance and line.
Seen nearer, long a gives effect to slate,
fake, scale, plate, cake, etc. A, fiat, gives
expression to mat, pack slap, strap, platter,
clap, flap, pat, fats shailovS, mash, JAM slam,
etc. "Flat as pancake" is very lat. Waver
and shake give horizontal vbrstion dash
splash, thrash, have t1atter downward force
When stone is crushed it is much broken,
yet it retains something of its bulk; when it
is mashed, it is ilattened. Burns, in his poem
called "T'he Vowels," speaks Of Csas ga grave,
broad, solemn wight" the breadth and space
belong to d-the gravity and solemnity to d,
or ah, or d.
Il. swee1Genborg, in endeavoring to describe
the language Of the angels, says the angels
that Glove most" use much the sound; but
those that 'l<now most" the speculative,
self-contemplative, intellectual, use the sound
of e. Burns idea of was expressed in weep
ing, greeting tesrs-the intensity of grief
alone. But it gives intensity to everything;
it gives oonvergence, concentration, dssSsrr-sess-
ing, and always brings thought % t1cus.
An tne endeafng G@.linlnutives end in e-the
.. wee -lngs. Mark how the child shups ths
book-orthGpy when he concentrates his mind
"a l6.6-tle, t6.6-ny bit of a thing !" he peers
between his fingers, or through some narrow
crevice, aud cries ''p6 ~ he feels the edge
of bis new knife, and writhing the corner
of his mouth towards his halfclosed
and conceptive eye, says sit is as k6 G-n!"
So when his contempt is intense he
dwells on the in ''me an 'sn6- akng,"
etc. But when the baby gives you his
rattle he opens bis mouth and his heart with
the instinct of the dative case, and says
''tah!'-outward and away. "a mother
whose instinct prompts her to say "bafe,"
instead of "baby," must have been polished
very thiply.) But me and zoe bring observa-
tion to ourselves. We would be better OBJ
jective case than as 80 much so that gram
maticsl infoImslity of Shakespeare has passed
uncared for, or unnoticed, in Hamlet, where
the prince speaks of the ghost as
"Making night hideous, and zoe fools of nature
80 horribly TO shake our disposition" etc
fancy this, like many another apparent
inaccuracy of the master, came through law
that is above the books. SquedmSh queer,
ieer zeaL Squea Screech saeeye, to be, to see, to
feel, to reek, get force from e.
"Deep self.possession-an Intense repose."
I, short, as in pin, has stiff, slim, prim,
spindling effect-a rising and sinking, perpen-
dicular effect, as in "the brstling pines;" but,
more especially it gives thinness and light
ness; thus, we say a eight skiff.'' Pope
showed his judgmentuponth this letter, as uponr:
"When the loud surges lash the sounding
shore,
The hosrse, rough verse should like the torrent
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain
Flies DER tn unbending corn, and skins along
the MAN," ...... ..
So Tennyson, for the fairy bugle uses aud c:
80 bark! o hear, how thin and clear"
i long, gives inclining Effects
"In winter, when the dismal rain ~
Comes down in slanting llneS"-
The clouds consig, their treasures to the fields"
In sounds has tightening effect, as in tinkle,
chick, link; cldnk is as the sound of sheet of
zinc dropped flat on the pavement. and ain
combination make beautiful curve, thus
Many an hour I've whiled away"
"Swilled by the wild and wasteful ocean,"
"Once in the flight OF ages past"
"Oh! when shall It dawn on the night of the
grave?''
''oh! wild enchanting horn !"
"Some happier island In the watery waste"
"Atnens, and Tyre, and Bslbec, and the waste
Where stood Jerusalem"
o. This is the noblest Roman of them all.
II we would find the most solemn sentence in
all literature, let us turn to Ecclesiastes:-
'For man goeth TO has long home, and the
2aourners 40 about the Streets" Not all the
trappings and the suits of woe can so pail
the sunlight in the homes and walks of
men as does this sombre verse. Burns calls
o "the wailing minstrel of despairing
woe.'' Swedenborg's idea was rather that of
holiness and alteration. Solemnity and nobi-
lity are its general effects. All things noble,
holy, devotional-or sober, sombre, slow,
dolorous, mournful-or old, lone, glorious
or even bold, portly, pompous, find their best
expression in the o-sound. Jove, Jehovah,
Lord of glory, lift up the adoring sodl. o!
10 no ! behold are interieotions which ma
tions use with little variance.
40 sad Nomorei sweet NomoreW
"Oh Rome, my country, city OF the soul,
The orphans of the heart must turn to thee"
"Roll on. thou deep and dark blue ocean roll .,
'Their shots along the deep slowly BOOM"
'The lowing herds wind slowly 'er the lea,
Tne Ploughman homeward plods his weary
That gives volume may be seen in the
fact that most people think boulder is
large stone; but, philologoally, boulder need
not be bigger than pea.
u, gutteral, or fiat is humorous savage
that cannot be described except in his own