McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson Elocution · Part 1: Principles of elocution
5. Principles of Elocution: modulation and poetic pauses optional
Goal: Your child chooses a comfortable reading pitch, varies the voice instead of reading in a monotone, and pauses well in poetry.
You'll need
- The book, open to these pages
- A notebook and pencil
What's in the book
VI. Modulation (pitch, compass, quantity and quality of the voice), VII. Poetic Pauses (the slight pause at the end of each line and the caesura in the middle).
The lesson, step by step
Pitch and the key-note
The book says each speaker has a key-note, the note the voice most often returns to, and that the range above and below it is the compass. Rule XII says to choose the pitch where you feel most at ease.
Have your child read a sentence high, then low, then at an easy middle pitch.
Beware of monotony
The book warns that staying on one note is monotony, one of the worst faults in reading. Read a sentence of any lesson in a flat, droning voice, then read it naturally.
SayWhich would you rather listen to?
Pauses in poetry
Read what the book says:
At the end of each line a slight pause is proper, whatever be the grammatical construction or the sense.
There is also a pause near the middle of a line, the caesura. The book marks it with two lines:
There are hours long departed || which memory brings
Sense comes first
Read the warning:
The cæsural pause should never be so placed as to injure the sense.
Try the book's examples. Pause slightly at the marks, but never so long that the meaning breaks apart.
Try it on a poem
Turn to any short poem you know and have your child read four lines with a slight pause at each line end and a small one in the middle.
Wrap up
SayWhat is monotony, and how do you avoid it?