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In order to determine the proper place of emphasis in a sentence one should ask what the central idea is, and what words one can least afford to dispense with. Instead of beginning to declaim it, think how one would say the sentence colloquially to a friend. Another effective way of finding the emphasis is by changing the words about in the sentence or by paraphrasing it. One thus ascertains the purpose of the sentence before giving expression to it.

A grievous fault to guard against is excessive emphasis, which defeats its own purpose by particularizing too much. When one tries to make everything emphatic nothing is emphatic. It is like excess of color, - there is no light and shade, no perspective. It becomes bombastic mouthing, strained, overdone style; for

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"None emphatic can that speaker call,

Who lays an equal emphasis on all."

SECTION II. EMPHASIS OF EMOTION

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Emphasis of Emotion addresses itself to the feelings and the will. While it carries with it the sense of the passage, it is not always applied to the sense words. The emotional words receive the chief emphasis. For example, in the sentence, "Must I endure all this?" the chief sense word is endure, and the chief emotional word is must. While both are strong, the emotional word takes precedence.

In the following sentences the emotional words are underscored and the sense words italicized:

Have you not love enough to bear with me?— Shakespeare. Portia, art thou gone? Shakespeare.

What a blunt fellow is this grown to be!

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- Shakespeare.

That it should come to this!... Let me not think on it!

-Shakespeare.

Emphasis of emotion is a law unto itself and varies with

individuals and with varying moods.

SECTION III. EMPHASIS OF PULSATION

Emphasis of Pulsation, or Pulsative Emphasis, is that by which a word or emotion is enforced by some bodily impulse or action. The law of pulsation is inherent in the physical organism. It manifests itself in the beating of the heart, in respiration, in walking, in running, and in all the activities of the muscular system; hence it represents the vital nature. Its expressive character may be seen in the glance of the eye, the nod of the head, the gesture of the hand, the stamp of the foot, and the physical act of the vocal organs in the light and heavy syllables of rhythmical language. To illustrate :

My answer would be a blow. - Grattan.

Inhuman wretch, take that, and that, and that. — Anonymous. Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus, “Come on, you cowards!" Shakespeare.

That you, at such times seeing me, never shall, with arms encumbered thus, or this head-shake note that you know

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The following are illustrations of the regular recurrence of pulsations in the rhythm of poetry :

Her children, hid the cliffs amid,

Are gambolling with the gambolling kid,

Or down the walls, with tipsy calls,

Laugh on the rocks like waterfalls.

Come and trip it as you go

Read.

On the light fantastic toe.

-Milton.

It should be borne in mind that action of some kind may accompany any of the forms of Emphasis. But Emphasis and expression by means of action will be discussed fully in Part II. Selections illustrating Emphasis :

NOTE. In the following selection let the student seek out and underscore the strongly emphatic words; then read the selection aloud, tripping easily and freely over unemphatic words and phrases.

THE NATIONAL FLAG

HENRY WARD BEECHER

A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag, sees not the flag, but the nation itself. When the French tricolor rolls out to the wind, we see France. When the new-found Italian flag is unfurled, we see unified Italy. When the united crosses of St. Andrew and St. George, on a fiery ground, set forth the banner of old England, we see not the cloth merely; there rises up before the mind the idea of that great monarchy.

This nation has a banner, too; and wherever this flag comes, and men behold it, they see in its sacred emblazonry no ramping lion and no fierce eagle, no embattled castles or insignia of imperial authority; they see the symbols of light. It is the banner of dawn. It means liberty; and the galley slave, the poor, oppressed conscript, the trodden-down creature of foreign despotism, sees in the American flag the very promise of God.

If one, then, asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to him: It means just what Concord and Lexington meant, what Bunker Hill meant. It means the whole glorious Revolutionary War. It means all that the Declaration of Independence meant. It means all that the Constitution of our people, organizing for justice, for liberty, and for happiness, meant.

Our flag carries American ideas, American history, and American feelings. Beginning with the colonies, and coming down to our time, in its sacred heraldry, in its glorious insignia, it has gathered and stored chiefly this supreme idea: divine right of liberty in man. Every color means liberty; every thread means liberty; every form of star and beam or stripe of light means liberty lawlessness, not license, but organized, institutional liberty — liberty through law, and laws for liberty!

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This American flag was the safeguard of liberty. Not an atom of crown was allowed to go into its insignia. Not a symbol of authority in the ruler was permitted to go into it. It was an ordinance of liberty by the people for the people. That it meant, that it means, and, by the blessing of God, that it shall mean to the end of time!

Under this banner rode Washington and his armies. Before it Burgoyne laid down his arms. It waved on the highlands at West Point. When Arnold would have surrendered these valuable fortresses and precious legacies, his night was turned into day and his treachery was driven away by the beams of light from this starry banner.

It cheered our army, driven out from around New York, and in their painful pilgrimages through New Jersey. In New Jersey, more than in almost every other state, grows the trailing arbutus. May I not think it is sacred drops of Pilgrim blood that come forth in beauteous flowers on this sandiest of soils? For this sweet blossom that lays its cheek on the very snow is the true Pilgrim's Mayflower! This banner streamed in light over the soldiers' heads at Valley Forge and at Morristown. It crossed the waters rolling with ice at Trenton, and when its stars gleamed in the cold morning with victory, a new day of hope dawned on the despondency of this nation.

Our states grew up under it. And when our ships began to swarm upon the ocean to carry forth our commerce, and Great Britain arrogantly demanded the right to intrude her search warrants upon American decks, then up went the lightning flag, and every star meant liberty and every stripe streamed defiance. The gallant fleet of Lake Erie — have you forgotten it? The thunders that echoed to either shore were overshadowed by this broad ensign of our American liberty. Those glorious men that went forth in the old ship Constitution carried this banner to battle and to victory. The old ship is alive yet. Bless the name, bless the ship, bless her historic memory, and bless the old flag that waves over her yet!

How glorious, then, has been its origin! How glorious has been its history! How divine is its meaning! Accept it in all its fullness of meaning. It is not a painted rag. It is a whole national history. It is the Constitution. It is the government; and for the sake of its ideas rather than its mere emblazonry, be true to your country's flag.

NOTE. In the selection which follows the rhythmical impulses of Pulsative Emphasis are especially illustrated.

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