How to Improve the
Imitative Modulation of Your Speech

The melody or sounds of words frequently express their meaning, and this correspondence between sound and sense can be made an effective element in speech. Good taste and a musical ear will best guide the speaker.

Here are some excerpts to improve your modulation:

1. With sturdy steps came stalking on his sight
A hideous giant, horrible and high.

"Faerie Queene." SPENSER.

2. There crept
A little noiseless noise among the leaves, Born of the very sigh that silence heaves.

3. And her step was light and airy
As the tripping of a fairy;
When she spoke, you thought, each minute,
'Twas the trilling of a linnet;
When she sang, you heard a gush
Of full-voiced sweetness like a thrush.

"The Spanish Duel." J. F. WALLER.

4. Hear the sledges with the bells, silver bells,-
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle in the icy air of night,
While the stars that over sprinkle all the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight.

"The Bells." POE.

5. 0 hark, 0 hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going; O sweet and far, from cliff and scar,
The horns of Elf land faintly blowing!
Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying:
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

"Bugle Song." TENNYSON.

6. With klingle, klangle, klingle,
Way down the dusty dingle,
The cows are coming home; Now sweet and clear, and faint and low, The airy tinklings come and go, Like chiming from some far-off tower, Or patterings of an April shower That makes the daisies grow-
Ko-kling, ko-klang, koklinglelingle,
Way down the darkening dingle
The cows come slowly home.

"When the Cows Come Home." AGNES E. MITCHELII.

7. The Cataract strong then plunges along,
Striking and raging, as if a war waging
Its caverns and rocks among; rising and leaping,
Sinking and creeping, swelling and sweeping,
Showering and springing, flying and flinging,
Writhing and ringing, eddying and whisking,
Spouting and frisking, turning and twisting,
Around and around with endless rebound!

"The Cataract of Lodore." ROBERT SOUTHEY.