Write one or more of the following letters as designated by your teacher:

Write a letter to one of your friends, telling about some play you have seen on the stage or in the moving pictures.

Write a letter to a friend, telling about your dog or about some other animal friend of yours. Address the envelope.

Write a letter to a friend, telling about an incident that happened while you were out camping. Address the envelope.

All of the pupils of the class write letters to the pupils of the same grade in some other city or town or school district. Tell them about your school or your community. Organize a post office in your schoolroom, and have the "postmaster" attend to posting the letters.

Write a letter to a friend, telling of some humorous incident of your experience, or of a funny story you have read.

57. NARRATIVE POETRY

I

When you studied Mr. Riley's A Sudden Shower you found that it painted for you a pleasing word picture. We call such a poem a descriptive poem because it describes something or paints a word picture of something. All writing which describes something is called descriptive writing. Not all poems, however, are descriptive. Some tell a story. When a poem narrates or tells a story, we call it a narrative poem

All

writing which narrates or tells a story is called narrative writing or narration.

You have doubtless read the long narrative poem, Young Lochinvar. Although we enjoy the pictures which add to the beauty of the poem, it is the story which interests us most. From the moment the adventurous knight enters the banquet hall, we are eager to learn what will happen.

In many narrative poems both description and conversation are used to add interest to the story. Find in the appendix of this book a narrative poem. Point out the parts that are conversation. Read the portions that are purely descriptive. Do you think the conversation adds interest? Do the descriptions make the story better?

Tell the story of the poem you selected, omitting the conversation and the descriptive parts.

Write the story. To make the story interesting, give as much conversation and description as you wish, but give it your way, not the author's way. You are not to repeat the poem, but to tell the story of the poem.

II

PLANNING A PROGRAM

You should now be able to classify many poems as either descriptive or narrative. Plan for an hour with the poets. Have two committees, one on invitations and one on selections. The invitation committee, with the advice of the teacher, may invite members of another class. The committee on selections will arrange the program.

The program committee should talk over the selections and see to it that either narrative or descriptive poems are chosen. If you are in doubt about a selection, consult your teacher.

Instruct those who are to take part to choose interesting short poems and to be able to give the title, author, and classification. They should introduce their reading in this way: "I shall read The Owl and the Pussy Cat, a short narrative poem by Edward Lear," or "I shall recite October's Bright Blue Weather, a beautiful descriptive poem by Helen Hunt Jackson."

58. MAKING COMPARISONS

As you studied the narrative and descriptive poems you may have thought that poets have a sudden inspiration, then sit down and dash off a poem without thought or study. You are partly right but mostly wrong. Great poets do indeed have a desire to express some worthy idea, but they must study and work in order to express that idea in words of truth and beauty. A modern newspaper woman was asked where she got her inspiration for her clever sayings. She replied, "I get an inspiration for work every time I think how much it costs to buy books and shoes." Notice that she said, "an inspiration for work." She made it her business to express her thoughts cleverly.

In order to write cleverly, you must often suggest more than you actually say. One way to do this is

by making comparisons.

Study the following phrases and be able to fill the blanks with the animal suggested:

As gay as

As mean as a

As wild as a

As slow as a
As gentle as a
As bold as a
As nimble as a
As dirty as a
As dainty as a
As greedy as a
As cross as a
As proud as a
As black as a
As mischievous as a

As big as a

As shy as a

As quiet as a

As noisy as a

As awkward as a

As lazy as a

Use these phrases to describe persons; for example, Lucy was as mischievous as a kitten:

Write a list of the names of all the animals you can remember. Opposite each name write the word which best describes the animal's size. Choose your words from the list of adjectives below and look for other words in the dictionary.

Opposite the word showing the size of the animal

write the color. You may need to consult the dictionary for a description of the animal.

Assignment for fast workers. Write a description of some animal. Do not reveal the name but make your word picture so clever that the class can see the animal and give its name.

59. ARTICULATION

One way of selecting the best speakers for programs is to notice who speaks most clearly. Stand before the class and read aloud the following nonsense sentences: The sun shines on the shop signs.

A ruler truly rural.

All night it lay an ice drop there.

The sea ceaseth and it sufficeth us.
High roller, low roller, lower roller.

Five wise, weeping wives, weave wiggling, withered withes. Say, should such a shapely sash shabby stitches show? The stripling stranger strayed straight through the struggling stream.

Where is the pretty pewter platter on which Pluma placed the pie?

There stood three long, slim, slick saplings.