After choosing the subject, the next step is to decide upon the point of view. Having once fixed this, the writer should not change it without giving the reader notice. If he moves forward or backward, to the right or to the left, he must inform the reader. After describing the view from an east window, he must not call attention to something on the west side of the house without showing how he is enabled to command a view in that direction. Similarly, the writer should notify the reader of a change of time. If he begins by describing the morning sky, he must not refer to the heat of noon without the proper transition.

In a single paragraph of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" Irving describes the outside of a house, the piazza, the hall, the parlor, and even gives us a peep into a china closet. Yet he is so careful to inform us of every movement of the wondering Ichabod that we follow with the utmost ease.

It is to be noted that Ichabod went no farther than the hall; then he stood and looked around.

It was one of those spacious farmhouses, with high-ridged, but lowly-sloping roofs, built in the style handed down from the first Dutch settlers; the low projecting eaves forming a piazza along the front, capable of being closed up in bad weather. Under this were hung flails, harness, various utensils of husbandry, and nets for fishing in the neighboring river. Benches were built along the sides for summer use; and a great spinning wheel at one end, and a churn at the other, showed the various uses to which this important porch might be devoted. From this piazza the wondering Ichabod entered the hall, which formed the center of the mansion and the place of usual residence. Here, rows of resplendent pewter, ranged on a long dresser, dazzled his eyes. In one corner stood a huge bag of wool ready to be spun; in another a quantity of linsey-woolsey just from the loom; ears of Indian corn, and strings of dried apples and peaches, hung in gay festoons along the walls, mingled with the gaud of red peppers; and a door left ajar gave him a peep into the best parlor, where the claw-footed chairs, and dark mahogany tables, shone like mirrors; and irons, with their accompanying shovel and tongs, glistened from their covert of asparagus tops; mock-oranges and conch shells decorated the mantelpiece; strings of various colored birds' eggs were suspended above it: a great ostrich egg was hung from the center of the room, and a corner cupboard, knowingly left open, displayed immense treasures of old silver and well-mended china.

- Irving, "The Sketch-Book."

These words show how the point of view changes: From this piazza Ichabod entered the hall . . . a door left ajar gave him a peep into the best parlor . . . a cupboard, left open.

Exercises

525. Criticize, with reference to the point of view, the selection from Parkman, on page 289. (1) Does the writer change his point of view? (2) If so, does he inform the reader of every such change?

526. From what point of view does the reader see (1) the room described by Hawthorne on page 290; (2) the description from "Rob Roy" on page 291; (3) the Nahant Storm, pages 291-292; (4) the passages from Parkman and Kipling, pages 255, 256?

527. Write a description of a living room (1) from a mother's point of view; (2) from a caller's point of view.

528. Show why it is necessary to have a point of view in description, and illustrate by giving an oral description of your school building.

529. Write an imaginative description of a dwelling house (1) from the inside or (2) from the outside.

530. Write a description of a landscape (1) on a bright morning or (2) on a moonlight evening.