A Study of Emotions in Speech

It is neither desirable nor possible to lay down arbitrary-rules for expressing emotion, since people express their feelings according to individual temperament and circumstances. Some general considerations, however, will be helpful.

In love, sympathy, devotion, and kindred feelings, the voice is usually inclined to high pitch, the eyes have a gentle luster, and a smile plays about the lips. In gravity the eyebrows are lowered, the lips shut firmly and the eyes apparently rest on vacancy. Surprise, wonder, and amazement are indicated by elevated eyebrows, open eyes and mouth, and aspirated voice. In tranquility, the eyes are mild, the face composed, and the body in repose. In anxiety, dejection, and grief, there is a downward contraction of the facial muscles and relaxation of the body. In sorrow and grief the corners of the mouth are drawn down. Violent grief often vents itself in beating the head with the hands, stamping the feet, and running about distracted. In fear the voice is weak and trembling, the lips, face and body shake, and the heart beats violently. Shyness is indicated by side glances. Pride is manifest in a lofty look, erect head, firm body, open eyes, and sometimes with lower lip protruded. In courage the figure is erect and free in its movements, and the voice full and firm.

EXAMPLES

ADMIRATION

What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!

"Hamlet." SHAKESPEARE.

ADMONITION

Remember March, the Ides of March remember! Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake? What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, And not for justice f What! shall one of us, That struck the foremost man of all this world, But for supporting robbers; shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes; And sell the mighty space of our large honors For so much trash as may be grasped thus?

"Julius Caesar." SHAKESPEARE.

ANGER

And dar'st thou, then, to beard the lion in his den,
The Douglas in his hall?
And hop'st thou hence unscathed to go?
No! by Saint Bride of Bothwell, no!
"Marmion." SCOTT.

APPEAL

Arthur. Oh, save me, Hubert, save me! my eyes are out, Even with the fierce looks of these bloody men!
"King John/' SHAKESPEARE.

AWE

Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, In ray less majesty, now stretches forth Her leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world. Silence how dead! and darkness how profound! Nor eye nor listening ear an object finds. Creation sleeps. 'Tis as the general pulse Of life stood still, and nature made a pause, - An awful pause, prophetic of her end.
"Night Thoughts." YOUNG.

COMMAND

" Hal t!"-the dust-brown ranks stood fast; "Fire!"- out blazed the rifle-blast.
"Barbara Frietchie." WHITTIER .

COURAGE

He shuddered, set teeth, kept silence.
Without a reproach or cry The women were slain before him,
And he stood and he saw them die.
"The Ballad of Splendid Silence." NESBIT.

COWARDICE

Acres. No, I say-we won't run by my valor!
Sir Lucius, What the devil's the matter with you?
Acres. Nothing, nothing, my dear friend-my dear Sir Lucius-but-I-I-I don't feel quite so bold, somehow, as I did.
Sir L. Oh, fie! consider your honor.
Acres. Ay, true-my honor-do, Sir Lucius, edge in a word or two, every now and then, about my honor.
Sir L. Well, here they're coming.
Acres. Sir Lucius, if I weren't with you, I would almost think I was afraid-if my valor should leave me! valor will come and go.
"The Rivals." SHERIDAN .

DEFIANCE

Blaze, with your serried columns!
I will not bend the knee! The shackles ne'er again shall bind
The arm which now is free. I've mail'd it with the thunder,
When the tempest mutter'd low; And where it falls, ye well may dread
The lightning of its blow!
"The Seminole's Reply." GEORGE W. PATTEN.

EXASPERATION

Oh! the side glance of that detested eye! That conscious smile! that full insulting lip! It touches every nerve; it makes me mad!
BAILLIE.

EXULTATION

Go ring the bells and fire the guns,
And fling the starry banners out; Shout "Freedom!" till your lisping ones Give back their cradle-shout.
WHITTIER .

GLADNESS

Now the laughing, jolly Spring began to show her buxom face in the bright morning. The buds began slowly to expand their close winter folds, the dark and melancholy woods to assume an almost imperceptible purple tint; and here and there a little chirping bluebird hopped about the orchards. Strips of fresh green appeared along the brooks, now released from their icy fetters; and nests of little variegated flowers, nameless, yet richly deserving a name, sprang up in the sheltered recesses of the leafless woods.

HATRED

Stay there, or I'll proclaim you to the house and the whole street! If you try to evade me, I'll stop you, if it's by the ham and raise the very stores against you.
DICKENS.

HOPE

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all, -Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.

"The Rainy Day." LONGFELLOW,

INDIGNANT COMMAND

"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting.
"Get thee back into the tempest and the night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of the lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken, quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the raven: "Nevermore!"
"The Baven." POE.

JOY

Then, sing ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
And let the young lambs bound
As to the tabor's sound!
We, in thought, will join your throng,
Ye that pipe and ye that play,
Ye that through your hearts to-day
Feel the gladness of the May!
"Intimations of Immortality." WORDSWOBTH.

PATRIOTISM

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between our loved home and the war's desolation;
Blessed with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the power thaj; hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, "IN GOD IS OUR TRUST";
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
"The Star-spangled Banner." KEY.

RESIGNATION

Forever and forever, all in a blessed home,
And there to wait a little while, till you and Effie come,
To lie within the light of God, as I lie upon your breast,
And the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.
"May Queen." TENNYSON.

REVERENCE

Father, Thy hand

Hath reared these venerable columns; Thou Dids't weave this verdant roof. Thou dids't look down Upon the naked earth, and forthwith rose All these fair ranks of trees.

" Forest Hymn." BRYANT.

SADNESS

We buried the old year in silence and sadness. To many it brought misfortune and affliction. The wife hath given her husband and the husband his wife at its stern behest; the father hath consigned to its cold arms the son in whom his life centered, and the mother hath torn from her bosom her tender babe and buried it and her heart in the cold, cold ground.

EDWARD BROOKS.

SCORN

I scorn to count what feelings, withered hopes, Strong provocations, bitter, burning wrongs, I have within my heart's hot cells shut up, To leave you in your lazy dignities.

"Catiline." CROLY.

SUBLIMITY

Thou glorious mirror! where the Almighty's form
Glasses itself in tempests; in all time, Calm or convulsed,-in breeze, or gale, or storm,-
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime
Dark heaving;-boundless, endless, and sublime,- The image of Eternity,-the
throne
Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep are made; each zone Obeys thee,-thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone!
"Childe Harold." BYRON.

SURPRISE

Gone to be married!-gone to swear a peace!
False blood to false blood joined! Gone to be friends!
Shall Lewis have Blanch? and Blanch those provinces?
It is not so;-thou hast mis-spoke,-mis-heard!
Be well advised, tell o'er thy tale again,-
It cannot be:-thou dost but say His so.
SHAKESPEARE.

TERROR

Now o'er the one half world Nature seems dead; and the wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep; now witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate's offerings; and withered murder, Alarmed by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, Toward his design

Moves like a ghost.-Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
The very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it.
"Macbeth." SHAKESPEARE.

THREAT

Do you think to frighten me? You! Do you think to turn me from any purpose that I have or any course I am resolved upon, by reminding me of the solitude of this place and there being no help near? Me, who am here designedly? If I had feared you, should I not have avoided you? If I feared you, should I be here in the dead of night, telling you to your face what I am going to tell? But I tell you nothing until you go back to that chair-except this once again. Do not dare to come near me-not a step nearer. I have something lying here that is no love trinket; and sooner than endure your touch once more, I would use it on you-and you know it while I speak-with less reluctance than I would on any other creeping thing that lives.

TRIUMPH

Mark ye the flashing oars, And the spears that light the deep? How the festal sunshine pours Where the lords of battle sweep! Each hath brought back his shield; Maid, greet thy lover home! Mother, from that proud field, Io! thy son is come.