6.4 Self-test on Imagery

Read the following passage and then answer the questions that follow. Write the appropriate letter in the spaces provided.

The house in which Mr Bolsover lived was a faded yellow primrose colour: it was a long house, but of only two storeys. Yet even its lower windows looked out far away over the meadows lying at this moment spread out beneath them, bright green in the morning sunshine. A narrow veranda shaded the windows, its sloping canopy of copper now a pale grey-green; and around its slim wooden pillars clematis and Jessamine clambered. At either end of it was a low weather-worn stone pedestal. On these stood two leaden fauns – the one ever soundlessly piping to the other across the wall-flowers and the pinks. And it was the pinks that were now in flower, white as snow, and filling the air with their musky fragrance.
(De la Mare, W. The Scarecrow in Collected Stories for Children, p.83.)

1. De la Mare brings the house into the mind’s eye of the reader in the opening sentence with the use of:
(a) two noun groups and an adjectival phrase
(b) three noun groups
(c) single adjectives

Answer: (a)

De la Mare uses: ‘a faded yellow primrose colour’ and ‘a long house’. Both are noun groups and he then extends the image of the house with the adjectival phrase, ‘of only two storeys’. Note how the adjectives within the noun groups enable the reader to see what he, the writer, is seeing.

2. The picture of the spread-out green meadows in front of the house is created by the following: ‘lying. . . spread out beneath them, bright green in the morning sunshine’ Here is an example of:
(a) two adjectivals (clauses)
(b) two adverbials
(c) two noun groups

Answer: (a)

. These are two adjectival clauses in which the subject has been suppressed and the verb shortened. The writer means: ‘ which were lying’ and ‘which were spread out’.. They are describing the green fields in front to the house.

3. What grammatical tools has De la Mare used in ‘a narrow veranda’, ‘its sloping canopy of copper’, ‘a pale grey-green’ to convey the snapshot of the veranda?
(a) adverbial phrases?
(b) adjectival phrases?
(c) noun groups?

Answer: (c)

These are noun groups. In each case, there is a noun which is qualified by an adjective or two: ‘narrow’,’ sloping. ‘of copper ’pale’.

4. In all, De la Mare, although describing a scene, only uses two figures of speech – a metaphor and a simile. The passage depends on imagery created by noun groups, adverbials and adjectivals.
(a) Correct
(b) Incorrect

Answer: (a)

Yes, there is one metaphor: De la Mare has the clematis and Jessamine ‘clambering up’ the narrow pillars of the veranda. They are taking on the action of a human. The use of this word gives the idea of abundant growth. The one simile: ‘white as snow’ referring to the pinks, small flowers, is not a remarkable simile but it does pinpoint how vividly the little flowers stand out in the greenery. The remainder of the description is dependent on noun groups, adverbials and adjectivals.

Functional Grammar and the making of meaning

6.4 Self-test on Imagery