But even in such simple cases care must be taken to avoid blurring the picture. Here is another sentence that must be straightened out carefully before we can get the meaning:

With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,

The ship drove fast, loud roar'd the blast,
And southward aye we fled.

-COLERIDGE: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Rewrite the above in the natural order of subject, modifiers, and predicate. Note also how the difficulty is increased because of the subordinate clause:

As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head.

But we are greatly helped when we recognize that the sentence is inverted. We note that "With sloping masts," etc., is incomplete in its meaning, and hence we look forward for the group that completes the sense, which we find in "The ship drove fast," etc.

REVIEW EXERCISES

So saying, a noble stroke he lifted high,
Which hung not, but so swift with tempest fell
On the proud crest of Satan, that no sight,
Nor motion of swift thought, less could his shield,
Such ruin intercept.

-MILTON: Paradise Lost.

High in front advanced,

The brandished sword of God before them blazed Fierce as a comet. -MILTON: Paradise Lost.

Him, Menelaus, loved of Mars, beheld Advancing with large strides before the rest. -The Iliad (Bryant's translation).

Me master years a hundred since from my parents sunder'd,

A little child, they caught me as the savage beast is

caught,

Then hither me across the sea the cruel slaver brought. -WHITMAN: Ethiopia Saluting the Colors.

On the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninetytwo,

Did the English fight the French,-woe to France! And, the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the

blue,

Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks

pursue,

Came crowding ship on ship to St. Malo on the Rance, With the English fleet in view.

-BROWNING: Hervé Riel.

Whither, 'midst falling dew,

While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue

Thy solitary way?

-BRYANT: To a Waterfowl.

Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown,

Of thee from the hill-top looking down.

-EMERSON: Each and All.

Thus while they look'd, a flourish proud,
Where mingled trump, and clarion loud,
And fife, and kettle-drum,

And sacbut deep, and psaltery,

And war-pipe with discordant cry,
And cymbal clattering to the sky,
Making wild music bold and high,
Did up the mountain come;

The whilst the bells, with distant chime,
Merrily toll'd the hour of prime,

And thus the Lindesay spoke.

-SCOTT: Marmion.

As night drew on, and, from the crest
Of wooded knolls that ridged the west,
The sun, a snow-blown traveler, sank
From sight beneath the smothering bank,
We piled with care our nightly stack
Of wood against the chimney-back.

-Whittier: Snow-Bound.

It little profits that an idle king,

By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
-TENNYSON: Ulysses.

How changed is here each spot man makes or fills! In the two Hinkseys nothing keeps the same;

The village street its haunted mansion lacks, And from the sign is gone Sibylla's name,

And from the roofs the twisted chimney-stacks— Are ye too changed, ye hills?

See, 'tis no foot of unfamiliar men

To-night from Oxford up your pathway strays!
Here came I often, often, in old days—

Thyrsis and I; we still had Thyrsis then.

-ARNOLD: Thyrsis.

Others for language all their care express,
And value books, as women, men for dress.

-POPE: An Essay on Criticism.

All night, the dreadless angel, unpursued,

Through Heaven's wide champaign held his way, till

Morn,

Waked by the circling Hours, with rosy hand

Unbarred the gates of light.

-MILTON: Paradise Lost.

CHAPTER VI

DENOTATION

While we have been studying the preceding chapters we have found ourselves learning to read with greater ease and thoroughness; however, it is quite possible to understand the principles and yet miss the meaning. Merely to group correctly does not necessarily imply reading with understanding. In the lines: No habitation can be seen; but they

Who journey thither find themselves alone

With a few sheep, with rocks and stones, and kites
That overhead are sailing in the sky.

It is in truth an utter solitude;

-WORDSWORTH: Michael.

there is a word whose meaning in this place is entirely different from its usual one. Can you find it? How could the place be without any habitation, one where those who journey thither find themselves alone with a few sheep, etc., and yet with "kites" sailing overhead in the sky? Would not sailing kites presuppose someone sailing them? Look up this word in the dictionary and note how that one word affects the picture. Another example:

Do you know the pile-built village where the sago dealers

trade?