Archives: The Elements of Eloquence

New biography of Agatha Christie; loving alliteration; remembering the Sabbath; newsletter March 16, 2018

March 19, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: newsletter.

This newsletter was sent to everyone on Jim’s email list (4,088) on Friday, March 16, 2018. Hi, [FIRST NAME GOES HERE] Lots of readers have reacted to lots of different things in previous newsletters, and I include many of those reactions in this week’s missive. I have said this many times: I love hearing from you on • Read More »

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Peter Piper and his pickled peppers: Our love for alliteration

March 13, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | No Comments | Filed in: journalism, writers, writing.

Mark Forsyth, of InkyFool.com, and author of several books on the language, cites in his The Elements of Eloquence (pages 10-11) an example of William Shakespeare, our old friend, lifting a passage from Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives for some lines in Antony and Cleopatra. From North we get this description of Cleopatra’s boat:

. . . the poop whereof was of gold, the sails of purple, and the oars of silver . . .

Shakespeare takes that and makes it into these lines:

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A new source for Shakespeare; etymology for everyone; nutritious foods; more crimes against English

February 19, 2018 | By Jim Stovall | 1 Comment | Filed in: newsletter.

Life is not all sitting around reading and writing blog posts and painting watercolors. Sometimes there is real, hard physical labor involved. That’s what

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