Table of Contents
FORCE.
Force refers to the strength or power of the voice, and is divided into forms and degrees. Very particular attention should be given to the subject of force, since that expression, which is so very important in elocution, is almost altogether dependent on some one or other modification of this attribute of the voice. It may truly be considered the light and shade of a proper intonation. Force may be applied to sentences or even to single words, for the purpose of energetic expression.
The degrees of force are Gentle, Moderate, and Heavy.
GENTLE FORCE.
The Gentle Force is used in expressing tenderness, love, secrecy, caution, etc., and the lungs must be kept thoroughly inflated, especially in reverberating sounds.
1.
"Heard you that strain of music light,
Borne gently on the breeze of night—
So soft and low as scarce to seem
More than the magic of a dream?
Morpheus caught the liquid swell—
Its echo broke his drowsy spell.
Hark! now it rises sweetly clear,
Prolonged upon the raptured ear;—
Sinking now, the quivering note
Seems scarcely on the air to float;
It falls—'tis mute—nor swells again;—
Oh! what wert thou, melodious strain?"
Mrs. J. H. Abbot.
2.
Was it the chime of a tiny bell,
That came so sweet to my dreaming ear,
Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell,
That he winds on the beach so mellow and clear,
When the winds and the waves lie together asleep,
And the moon and the fairy are watching the deep,
She dispensing her silvery light,
And he his notes as silvery quite,
While the boatman listens and ships his oar,
To catch the music that comes from the shore?—
Hark! the notes on my ear that play,
Are set to words: as they float, they say,
"Passing away! passing away!"
Pierpont.
3.
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 oversprinkle all the heavens, seem
to twinkle
With a crystalline delight—
Keeping time, time, time, in a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells—
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
E. A. Poe.
MODERATE FORCE.
The Moderate Force is used in ordinary conversation and unemotional utterances.
1.
She stood before her father's gorgeous tent
To listen for his coming. Her loose hair
Was resting on her shoulders like a cloud
Floating around a statue, and the wind,
Just swaying her light robe, reveal'd a shape
Praxiteles might worship. She had clasp'd
Her hands upon her bosom, and had raised
Her beautiful dark Jewish eyes to heaven,
Till the long lashes lay upon her brow.
Her lips were slightly parted, like the cleft
Of a pomegranate blossom; and her neck,
Just where the cheek was melting to its curve,
With the unearthly beauty sometimes there,
Was shaded, as if light had fallen off,
Its surface was so polish'd. She was stilling
Her light, quick breath, to hear; and the white rose
Scarce moved upon her bosom, as it swell'd,
Like nothing but a lovely wave of light
To meet the arching of her queenly neck.
Her countenance was radiant with love,
She looked like one to die for it—a being
Whose whole existence was the pouring out
Of rich and deep affections.
N. P. Willis.
2.
Oh! sing unto the Lord a new song, for He hath done marvellous things: His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.
3.
POR. The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes;
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the
