Simplicity ofdiction was to be preserved at all costs, whatever might be the rule with secular books.
In the reviews of the volume the newspapery tone and journalist diction are rather unpleasantly conspicuous.
The descriptive passage at the close beginning-- But the majestic river floated on, for diction and breadth of tone would do honor to any living poet.
It has its own dictionand imagery, conforming to the order, gradations and subtleties of its thought.
This familiar language, they say, has lessened the dignity of the old tales, bringing them all to one level by a diction and style that is one, whether they are romance or folk-tale.
But, aside from the mere mechanics of written speech, there is in the diction of Patrick Henry's letters the nameless felicity which, even with great natural endowments, is only communicable by genuine literary culture in some form.
Moreover, we can hardly err in saying that he had then also become a steady reader of the English Bible, the diction of which is stamped upon his style as unmistakably as it is upon that of the elder Pitt.
Yet the only writers who use the natural diction of men are novelists, prose dramatists and short story writers, and, curiously enough, because they did not write verse, it has not often been suspected that these men were poets.
He did not write against his own theory, for he always employed metre and--except in some ballads--a diction that was even literary.
We certainly owe much to him--his diction is rich, musical, and expressive.
Hence the need of careful labour to the accomplished poet--not in order that his diction may attract, but that language may be subjected to him.
In the one case the reader is utterly at the mercy of the poet respecting what imagery or diction he may choose to connect with the passion.
His diction was not only inelegant, but frequently ungrammatical, always vulgar; his cadences false, his voice unharmonious, and his action ungraceful.
The diction of Anglo-Saxon poetry is a subject of study by itself.
Thus spoke Tom, with a fluency and correctness of diction which surprised himself.
The enthusiast spoke solemnly, and his queer diction somehow was not unbecoming or grotesque.
It enables the hearer to follow the mental exertions of the speaker, and thus rivets attention better than many a smooth and sonorous diction which glides along nicely because it has no inner difficulties to overcome.
It is the first grand duty of an interpreter to give his author entire and unmaimed; and for the rest, the diction and versification only are his proper province, since these must be his own, but the others he is to take as he finds them.
Where his diction is bold and lofty, let us raise ours as high as we can; but where his is plain and humble, we ought not to be deterred from imitating him by the fear of incurring the censure of a mere English critic.
As has already been said, a gift for expression is needed, but even this cannot be exercised or developed unless a man has acquired diction and come in contact with style, for all the arts rest on the imitation of accepted models.
The stories presented hold the attention, the vividness of the narrative captivates the reader and carries him through the obscurities of diction and of style to a wholly unexpected realization that Latin is a real language after all.
Definite standards in newspaper writing and in diction begin to be recognized and practiced in the office, and slips in either meet a more severe criticism.
Even up to the opening of the Civil War, whatever the faith or the practice of the adult inhabitants of the country, the Bible story and the Bible diction were familiar to all.
In the voice it was difficult to recognize the finely modulated dictionof Justice Isaac Higginbotham.
Zanoni' and 'A Strange Story' must be portrayed with a resonance and exaltation of diction fitted to their transcendental claims.
The facts are not very coherent, the diction is artificial in the fashion of the day.
Carlo Sigonio, in his life of Andrea Doria, and, among Genoese writers, Oberto Foglietto have treated the matter with elegance of diction but with unblushing plagiarism.
Except a few sprightly lines, they show the devoted ardour of a monk rather than the philosophic penetration and chaste diction of Jacopo.
Those familiar with Dante's allegorical dictionwill not lay much stress on the literal meaning of pargoletta in Purgatono, XXXI.
His influence is not to be left out of account as partially contributing to that decline toward poetic diction which was already beginning ere he died.
Such was the poetical inheritance of style and diction into which Spenser was born, and which he did more than any one else to redeem from the leaden gripe of vulgar and pedantic conceit.
Wordsworth revolted at the poetic diction which he found in vogue, but his own language rarely rises above it, except when it is upborne by the thought.
Amid the pedantic farrago of his omni-sufficiency (to borrow one of his own words) we come suddenly upon passages whose gravity of sentiment, stateliness of movement, and purity of diction remind us of Landor.
While the voice is in what might be called a state of ferment the singer is only anxious to produce tones, and diction slips by the wayside.
These exercises, however, combined with exercises in diction, help to make the tongue elastic, and the more elastic and quick this muscle becomes the clearer will be the singer's diction and the more flexible will be her voice.
I would aver that a fine enunciation, far from interfering with it, aids the voice production, makes it softer and more concentrated, but diction should act rather as a frame for the voice and never replace it.
In France the matter of diction is probably given the greatest attention, and singers at the Opera Comique, for instance, are noted for their pure and distinct enunciation of every syllable.
The appreciative listener should be able to know whether a lack of diction on the singer's part means immaturity or simply slovenliness.
Doubtless, this impression has come from the fact that, particularly in France, many singers possessed of small voices must exaggerate their diction to obtain their effects.
But if they did not have this perfect diction they often would have little else to recommend them.
Certainly no singer can be called a great artist unless his diction is good, for a beautiful voice alone will not make up for other deficiencies.
Since then, even in tragedy, where the natural dignity of the subject makes a swelling diction allowable, we cannot pardon a tasteless grandiloquence, how much more incongruous must it seem in sober prose!
The diction also gains greatly in diversity and movement by changes of case, time, person, number, and gender.
To take only one instance, his diction is the very echo of Racine's.
