help me out please!! ㅠㅠ
Sep 02nd 2011 02:05
The April day was soft and bright, and poor Dencombe, happy in the conceit of reasserted strength, stood in the garden of the hotel, comparing, with a deliberation in which, however, there was still something of languor, the attractions of easy strolls. He liked the feeling of the south, so far as you could have it in the north, he liked the sandy cliffs and the clustered pines, he liked even the colourless sea. ‘Bournemouth as a health-resort’ had sounded like a mere advertisement, but now he was reconciled to the prosaic. The sociable country postman, passing through the garden, had just given him a small parcel, which he took out with him, leaving the hotel to the right and creeping to a convenient bench that he knew of, a safe recess in the cliff. It looked to the south, to the tinted walls of the Island, and was protected behind by the sloping shoulder of the down. He was tired enough when he reached it, and for a moment he was disappointed; he was better, of course, but better, after all, than what? He should never again, as at one or two great moments of the past, be better than himself. The infinite of life had gone, and what was left of the dose was a small glass engraved like a thermometer by the apothecary. He sat and stared at the sea, which appeared all surface and twinkle, far shallower than the spirit of man. It was the abyss of human illusion that was the real, the tideless deep. He held his packet, which had come by book-post, unopened on his knee, liking, in the lapse of so many joys (his illness had made him feel his age), to know that it was there, but taking for granted there could be no complete renewal of the pleasure, dear to young experience, of seeing one’s self ‘just out’. Dencombe, who had a reputation, had come out too often and knew too well in advance how he should look.
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This is the first paragraph from the Henry James' <The Middle Years>.
I think I know overall meaning but still have some difficulties understanding two sentences below.
It looked to the south, to the tinted walls of the Island, and was protected behind by the sloping shoulder of the down.
what was left of the dose was a small glass engraved like a thermometer by the apothecary
What's "sloping shoulder of the down" mean ?
and why 'of the dose' was inserted between 'left' and 'was' in the second sentence?
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This is the first paragraph from the Henry James' <The Middle Years>.
I think I know overall meaning but still have some difficulties understanding two sentences below.
It looked to the south, to the tinted walls of the Island, and was protected behind by the sloping shoulder of the down.
what was left of the dose was a small glass engraved like a thermometer by the apothecary
What's "sloping shoulder of the down" mean ?
and why 'of the dose' was inserted between 'left' and 'was' in the second sentence?
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정말 감사합니다!! ^ㅁ^
Help me out please!! ㅠㅠ
I have a good Idea of the/I understood the overall meaning but still have some difficulties understanding two sentences below.
Thank you very much!!
감사합니다!
As for "what was left of the dose was a small glass engraved like a thermometer by the apothecary"
This can be broken down into sentence fragments so it's more easy to understand. Remember, this sentence is also a metaphor. Basically, the author is using this metaphor to say, "His life wasn't worth much anymore."
"what was left of the dose"--(noun) the amount of the dose that remains
"was" --(verb) to be
"a small glass engraved like a thermometer"-- (noun) a container that's very small
"by the apothecary"--from the doctor.
The author is comparing the character's life to medicine. Or at least that's what I think from reading it; I've never studied this literature before.
So, 'sloping shoulder of the down' could be personification
or it could be the description of a person who is slouch, right?
감사합니다!!!! ^ㅇ^