"laughter-loving," are now conventional compounds, but they were fresh enough

when Homer first conjoined them. The centuries have not yet improved upon

"Wheels round, brazen, eight-spoked," or "Shields smooth, beautiful, brazen,

well-hammered." Observe the effective use of epithet in Will Levington Comfort's

"The Fighting Death," when he speaks of soldiers in a Philippine skirmish as

being "leeched against a rock."

 

_Description uses figures of speech._ Any advanced rhetoric will discuss their

forms and give examples for guidance.[21] This matter is most important, be

assured. A brilliant yet carefully restrained figurative style, a style marked

by brief, pungent, witty, and humorous comparisons and characterizations, is a

wonderful resource for all kinds of platform work.

 

_Description may be direct._ This statement is plain enough without exposition.

Use your own judgment as to whether in picturing you had better proceed from a

general view to the details, or first give the details and thus build up the

general picture, but by all means BE BRIEF.

 

Note the vivid compactness of these delineations from Washington Irving's

"Knickerbocker:"

 

He was a short, square, brawny old gentleman, with a double chin, a mastiff

mouth, and a broad copper nose, which was supposed in those days to have

acquired its fiery hue from the constant neighborhood of his tobacco pipe.