HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1926-10-14, Page 7ON STYLE IN WRITING
Neve, this whole question of style—. The see that it•o sentence contains
Well. it's the gist of good writing. I a hint of obscurity,
There'd no , really effective ..writing . Then go. over the weeds you use to
without it. . , , . I see if they be the best. Don't fall in -
Style is good breeding --and art-- to merely current phrases. If you
in writing. It •eortsists,oP the
arrange ha" a lortg wo2d, aeon a native short
meet of your matter iirs•t; then, more one can be put in its place which wilt.
Of the gait; the manner and the man be more natural and stronger, Avoid
n�ers of your expressing it. Work a Latin vocabulary and use a plain
every group of Pacts, naturally and English one—short wordy+ instead of
logically, up as a sculptor works out lung ones, .
his idea, or a painter, catch group cam- Moet of all, use idioms—eeiolsh
Stere in itself, Throw out any super- idioms of farce. Say an a.greem nt
Zeus facts or any merely minor facts was "conte to," Don.'t say it was "con-
that prevent the orderly working up summated," For the difference be
oP the group—ghat prevent or marCiig tween idioms and a Latin style, c•om-
effeet you wish t0 present, ! pare Lincoln with George Washington.
Oate'a always interesting and convinc-
Then, when you've got a group thus • Ing• The other is dull, in spite of all
presented, go over what you've made' his good sense. How most folk do
of it, to make sure you've use your ma- mimeos and waste words!
aerial an its arrangements to the best Freeman went too far in his use of
effect, taking away inerely extrane- one-spllabie words. It became an af-
ous. or superfluous or distracting fectation. But he is the'only man I
facts, here and there adding concrete • can think of that ever did go too far
illustations--putting in a convincing in that direction. X—would have
detail liere and there, a touch of color. I written a great history if he bad hid
• Then go osier it for your vocabulary. the natural use of idioms. As it is,
See that you use no word in a air- the has good sense and no style; and
ferent meaning than it was used one , his book isn't half so intorestiug as it
hundred years ago, and will he used would have been if he had some style
one • hundred years hence. You wish —some praper value of short, clear
to use only the permanent words— ! out words that mean only one thing
words, too, that will be und•ere•tood to and that leave no vagueness.
carry the same meaning to English You'll get a good style if Y you S
readers in everyand
part of the world• rice it. But it's a high art and
Your vocabulary must be chosen from must be laboriously cultivated -From
the permanent, solid, stable parts of "The Life and Letters of Walter H.
the language. Page," by Burton J. Hendrick,
"Rock Me to Sleep."
Mrs. Akers• is one of the many poet-
(wee
oeteeaee of the Victorian Age who,
Musk Gaining Thousands of
Adherents.
In. the hearts, of the Canadian pea• thou h
ple, no art transcends the art of g popular iu thei2 day, are now
music. it has gained adherents faster almost forgotten.
and in greater numbers than any of
the s0is1e•r• arts.
Of no other art is it possible to say,
as can be said of music, that in vir-
tually every family there is at least Mother, coma back from the echoless
one person who has become its vo shore;
tory, But it •is uo longer possible to I Take me again to your heart as of
speak of mus to solely as an art. Ae l yore. •
an art alone it could not reach these Kiss teem _____ forehead the
imillions whose benison it is.
.Backward, turn backward, 0 Time, in
your flight;
Make me a child again, just for to-
night!
care,
Only because music has also be- Smooth the few silver threads out of
conte a business, substantial, far- my hair,
reaching, far-seeing, and guided by the Over my slumbers your loving watch
moat practical idealism, has it ceased 1 keep --
to he a plaything of coteries and of ' Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me
cults and become a colossal national to sleep]
heritage.
Music as an art may he said to be Backward, turn backward, 0 tide of
the great anodyne of life. As a t2uei-• the years! -
nems it is a public service institution I am so weary of toi!1 and of tears;
that represents the best accomplish- Toil Without eeoonripense, tears all in
ments of democracy, There is no vain, •
_severing the two. The universality of Take them and give me my.chuIdhood
the one. has been made possible; and again!
• continues in ever -widening lnfiuence I: have .grown wearyof dust and decay,
by virtue of the other. j Weary of -flinging my soul-weaI'th
Music, as the nation knows it to -day, I away,
is of necessity as much a matter of Weary of sow•iiig for others to reale--
business as it is of art. A business so Rock me to Bleep, mother, rock. me to
highly organized, so specialized, so; sleep!
built up ou the lessons of a century;
and more of experim-entation, that its Over my heart, in the days that are
administration is no place for the tyro,' flown,
the gambler or t:be bungler. It is a No love like mother -lore ever has
buefuess that must have ideals con-; shone;
mensurate with those of the art. With No other devotion abides and endures,
these ideals must go acumen of no Faithful, unselfish, and patient like
common order,
yours.
The art of music goes back to the None like r. another can chru•zn, away
night of time. No savage tribe is ut- pain
terry without .it, Perhaps thereFran] t'aa sick s i
1 were oil and the
world -
tunes,
e L, intwe
) �thereWeary b
wereIIlI ra 1.
rlt I y n
yihms, ,
before there were spoken words. Rude' Slumbers soft, colza, o'er my heavy.
melodies were the language of the I lids creep --
emotions in days when a written hinge Rock tee to sleep, brother, rock me to
uage was still remote. sleep!
The songs of birds, the sighing of the
winds, the sounds of the sea, the )nelo- Mother, dear mother! the years have
Mous murmur of brooks an the patterbeen long
of rain, the very rhythm of man's awn I "ince last. I listened your lullaby song;
'heart beats, together with the inborn 11 Srng then, and unto my soul it shall
tendency of the race to dance, all cou-1s•a: