Thought rather than rules must govern you while practising change of pace. It is

often a matter of no consequence which part of a sentence is spoken slowly and

which is given in fast tempo. The main thing to be desired is the change itself.

For example, in the selection, "The Mob," on page 46, note the last paragraph.

Reverse the instructions given, delivering everything that is marked for slow

tempo, quickly; and everything that is marked for quick tempo, slowly. You will

note that the force or meaning of the passage has not been destroyed.

 

However, many passages cannot be changed to a slow tempo without destroying

their force. Instances: The Patrick Henry speech on page 110, and the following

passage from Whittier's "Barefoot Boy."

 

O for boyhood's time of June, crowding years in one brief moon, when all things

I heard or saw, me, their master, waited for. I was rich in flowers and trees,

humming-birds and honey-bees; for my sport the squirrel played; plied the

snouted mole his spade; for my taste the blackberry cone purpled over hedge and

stone; laughed the brook for my delight through the day and through the night,

whispering at the garden wall, talked with me from fall to fall; mine the

sand-rimmed pickerel pond; mine the walnut slopes beyond; mine, an bending

orchard trees, apples of Hesperides! Still, as my horizon grew, larger grew my

riches, too; all the world I saw or knew seemed a complex Chinese toy, fashioned

for a barefoot boy!

 

--J.G. WHITTIER.