Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 by H. P. Lovecraft (best pdf ebook reader for android .txt) 📗
- Author: H. P. Lovecraft
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Out of that crash came darkness, and I heard the shrieking of men and of things which were not men. From the East tempestuous winds arose, and chilled me as I crouched on the slab of damp stone which had risen beneath my feet. Then as I heard another crash I opened my eyes and beheld myself upon the platform of that lighthouse from whence I had sailed so many æons ago. In the darkness below there loomed the vast blurred outlines of a vessel breaking up on the cruel rocks, and as I glanced out over the waste I saw that the light had failed for the first time since my grandfather had assumed its care.
And in the later watches of the night, when I went within the tower, I saw on the wall a calendar which still remained as when I had left it at the hour I sailed away. With the dawn I descended the tower and looked for wreckage upon the rocks, but what I found was only this: a strange dead bird whose hue was as of the azure sky, and a single shattered spar, of a whiteness greater than that of the wave-tips or of the mountain snow.
And thereafter the ocean told me its secrets no more; and though many times since has the moon shone full and high in the heavens, the White Ship from the South came never again.
TO MISTRESS SOPHIA SIMPLE, QUEEN OF THE CINEMADepicts your joys or woes distracting;
We marvel at your winsome grace—
And wish you'd learn the art of acting!
Your mouth is like the bow of Cupid;
Your rose-ting'd cheeks no wrinkle mars—
Yet why are you so sweetly stupid?
To win your hand forever working;
We pity him—the witless wight—
To fall a victim to your smirking!
Because so crudely you dissemble?
We can't expect for one small dime,
To see a Woffington or Kemble!
[119]
THE UNITED AMATEUR JANUARY 1920 Literary Composition H. P. LovecraftIn a former article our readers have been shewn the fundamental sources of literary inspiration, and the leading prerequisites to expression. It remains to furnish hints concerning expression itself; its forms, customs, and technicalities, in order that the young writer may lose nothing of force or charm in presenting his ideas to the public.
GrammarA review of the elements of English grammar would be foreign to the purpose of this department. The subject is one taught in all common schools, and may be presumed to be understood by every aspirant to authorship. It is necessary, however, to caution the beginner to keep a reliable grammar and dictionary always beside him, that he may avoid in his compositions the frequent errors which imperceptibly corrupt even the purest ordinary speech. As a general rule, it is well to give close critical scrutiny to all colloquial phrases and expressions of doubtful parsing, as well as to all words and usages which have a strained or unfamiliar sound. The human memory is not to be trusted too far, and most minds harbour a considerable number of slight linguistic faults and inelegancies picked up from random discourse or from the pages of newspapers, magazines, and popular modern books.
Types of MistakesMost of the mistakes of young authors, aside from those gross violations of syntax which ordinary education corrects, may perhaps be enumerated as follows.
(1) Erroneous plurals of nouns, as vallies or echos.
(2) Barbarous compound nouns, as viewpoint or upkeep.
(3) Want of correspondence in number between noun and verb where the two are widely separated or the construction involved.
(4) Ambiguous use of pronouns.
(5) Erroneous case of pronouns, as whom for who, and vice versa, or phrases like "between you and I," or "Let we who are loyal, act promptly."
(6) Erroneous use of shall and will, and of other auxiliary verbs.
(7) Use of intransitive for transitive verbs, as "he was graduated from college," or vice versa, as "he ingratiated with the tyrant."
(8) Use of nouns for verbs, as "he motored to Boston," or "he voiced a protest."
(9) Errors in moods and tenses of verbs, as "If I was he, I should do otherwise," or "He said the earth was round."
(10) The split infinitive, as "to calmly glide."
(11) The erroneous perfect infinitive, as "Last week I expected to have met you."
(12) False verb-forms, as "I pled with him."
(13) Use of like for as, as "I strive to write like Pope wrote."
(14) Misuse of prepositions, as "The gift was bestowed to an unworthy object," or "The gold was divided between the five men."
(15) The superfluous conjunction, as "I wish for you to do this."
(16) Use of words in wrong senses, as "The book greatly intrigued me," "Leave me take this," "He was obsessed with the idea," or "He is a meticulous writer."
(17) Erroneous use of non-Anglicised foreign forms, as "a
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