The series of images

Fundamental Device.— A SERIES OF IMAGES.

It should be noted that this device does not consist in the personification of the details of the thing described. We shall have examples of that later. In a series of images the whole is com¬pared now to one thing and now to another.

A.	MODEL.

White swan of cities, slumbering in thy nest So wonderfully built among the reeds Of the lagoon, that fences thee and feeds As sayeth thy old historian and thy guest ! White water-lily, cradled and caressed By ocean streams, and from the silt and weeds Lifting thy golden filaments and seeds, Thy sun-illumined spires, thy crown and crest ! White phantom city, whose untrodden streets Are rivers, and whose pavements are the shifting Shadows of palaces and strips of sky ; I wait to see thee vanish like the fleets Seen in mirage, or towers of cloud uplifting In air their unsubstantial masonry

— HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, Venice.

SUGGESTIONS.—What details are mentioned to carry out the first image ? the second ? the third ? What description-motive is used in the above model ? What is the fundamental quality in the description ?

Minor devices used. simile ;allusion.

B.	EXAMPLE FOR ANALYSIS. Neal wants balance ; he throws his mind always too far, Whisking out flocks of comets, but never a star ; He has so much muscle, and loves so to show it, That he strips himself naked to prove he's a poet, And, to show he could leap Art's wide ditch, if he tried, Jumps clean o'er it, and into the hedge t'other side. Too hasty to wait till Art's ripe fruit should drop, He must pelt down an unripe and colicky crop. In letters, too soon is as bad as too late ; Could he only have waited he might have been great ; But he plumped into Helicon up to the waist, And muddied the stream ere he took his first taste.

—.TAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, A Fable for Critics.

SUGGESTIONS.— What is the first image in this example ? the second? and so on. How many are there in all ? What descrip¬tion-motive is used in this example ? What is the fundamental quality in the character here described ? Minor devices used. a general reflection ; an allusion.