A WHITE BEAR!
“Didst thou ever see a white bear cried my father, turning his head round to Trim, who stood at the back of his chair:No, an please your honour, replied the corporal.But thou couldst discourse about one, Trim, said my father, in case of needHow is it possible, brother, quoth my uncle Toby, if the corporal never saw oneTis the fact I want; replied my father,and the possibliity of it, is as follows.
A WHITE BEAR! Very well. Have I ever seen one Might I ever have seen one Am I ever to see one Ought I ever to have seen one Or can I ever see one
Would I had seen a white bear! (for how can I imagine it)
If I should see a white bear, what should I say If I should never see a white bear, what then
If I never have, can, must or shall see a white bear alive; have I ever seen the skin of one Did I ever see one painteddescribed Have I never dreamed of one
Did my father, mother, uncle, aunt, brothers or sisters, ever see a white bear What would they give How would they behave How would the white bear have behaved Is he wild Tame Terrible Rough Smooth
Is the white bear worth seeing
Is there no sin in it
Is it better than a BLACK ONE”
—Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, Vol. 5., 1761.
a blush of joy
“My uncle Toby blushed as red as scarlet as Trim went on;but it was not a blush of guilt,of modesty,or of anger;it was a blush of joy;he was fired with Corporal Trims project and description.”
—Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, 1759.
Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine
“Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine;they are the life, the soul of reading;take them out of this book for instance,you might as well take the book along wit them; . . .”
—Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, 1759.
an Old Person in Black
“There was an Old Person in Black,
A Grasshopper jumped on his back;
When it chirped in his ear,
He was smitten with fear,
That helpless Old Person in Black.”
—Edward Lear, There Was an Old Person in Black.
a collection of Rorschach blobs
“There were several empty seats at the bar and at the tables but Alvine did not want to commit himself to such a permanent step, for the customers were not ordinary bar types or even bohemian types but seemed a collection of Rorschach blobs in the watery pink light.”
—Dawn Powell, The Golden Spur, 1962.
a pink shirt
“Eighteen bucks, said Lou. I swore Id never wear a pink shirt but it was the goods that got me. Feel that material.”
—Dawn Powell, Angels on Toast, 1938.
her little brown eyes
“As she talked her little brown eyes shopped over his person busily, price-tagging his corduroy slacks and checked shirt, recognizing his old sport jacket and mentally throwing it out.”
—Dawn Powell, The Golden Spur, 1962.
the wonderful diamond-studded air
“Three hundred cool dollars just like that. He stood still, breathing deep of the wonderful diamond-studded air, looking down beautiful Lexington Avenue, a street paved with gold, saw the little jewelry-store window right beside him and decided instantly he would go in and buy the silver writswatch on the blue velvet.”
—Dawn Powell, The Golden Spur, 1962.
greenish-gray hair and lashes
“The large bulbous nose, the greenish-gray hair and lashes, the gray-white eyes, all had the deathly color of leather buried for centuries in Davy Joness locker, and the neatly folled cloth bundle under his arm seemed a marinerss kit.”
—Dawn Powell, The Golden Spur, 1962.
the unearthly sea-bottom moon-green
“He had to get back to his own Village, to the half-finished canvas he had deserted. He had to find again that green, the wonderful green, the true paint-green, the unearthly sea-bottom moon-green, not the lousy nature-green of trees and grass.”
—Dawn Powell, The Golden Spur, 1962.