effectively. Naturally, you may omit some of these and insert others without

going wrong--one speaker would interpret a passage in one way, one in another;

it is largely a matter of personal preference. A dozen great actors have played

Hamlet well, and yet each has played the part differently. Which comes the

nearest to perfection is a question of opinion. You will succeed best by daring

to follow your own course--if you are individual enough to blaze an original

trail.

 

A moment's halt--a momentary taste of being from the well amid the waste--and

lo! the phantom caravan has reached--the nothing it set out from--Oh make haste!

 

The worldly hope men set their hearts upon--turns ashes--or it prospers;--and

anon like snow upon the desert's dusty face--lighting a little hour or two--is

gone.

 

The bird of time has but a little way to flutter,--and the bird is on the wing.

 

You will note that the punctuation marks have nothing to do with the pausing.

You may run by a period very quickly and make a long pause where there is no

kind of punctuation. Thought is greater than punctuation. It must guide you in

your pauses.

 

A book of verses underneath the bough,--a jug of wine, a loaf of bread--and thou

beside me singing in the wilderness--Oh--wilderness were paradise enow.