Fundamental devices in description

We can best gain a notion of what is meant by a "fundamental device" by comparing the two descriptions given below, of which one contains such a device and the other does not. 1.	The following selection has no fundamental device :

example needed

Compare the above paragraph with the following description, which has a fundamental device and keeps our thought fixed on the whole rather than on the details through which the whole is realized. Tell which description is the easier to picture men¬tally ; which seems to you the more artistic. 2. The fundamental device used in the follow¬ing passage is that of the effect of light. The details are mentioned by showing how the light affects each : Full on this casement shone the wintry moon, And threw warm gules on Madeline'S fair breast, As down she knelt for heaven's grace and boon ; Rose-bloom fell on her hands, together prest, And on her.silver cross soft amethyst, And on her hair a glory, like a saint : She seem'd a splendid angel, newly drest, Save wings, for heaven :— Porphyro grew faint : She knelt, so pure a thing, so free from mortal taint.

—JOHN KEATS, The Eve of St. Agnes.

SUGGESTIONS.—The light is here represented as shining through a stained glass window. What items of Madeline's appearance are mentioned by showing the effect of light upon them ? The second paragraph has not only unity of impression but unity of handling, and thus economizes our attention.

List of Fundamental description Devices

The cataloguing of the details of what is described The localizing of details

The fundamental image

The series of images

The personification of details

The effect of light, cold, etc., upon the details of a picture

The effect on the observer or listener

The giving of directions for getting a conception of a person, place, etc.

Obverse description.

Audible thought as a device.

The use of a general reflection to introduce a description.

The single contrast making up the whole description. The use of a series of contrasts.

The single analogy or comparison making up the whole description.

The series of analogies or comparisons. Dialogue device.

Vision device.

Apostrophe device.