Posted by Rick Denney on September 07, 2002 at 22:30:28:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Why should we have to defend teachers? posted by Doug on September 07, 2002 at 22:08:19:
As Ken would say, there is no right answer.
I think it is because "the Moon shone clear" creates not only an image, but the feel of the image the mind of the reader, while "the Moon cast a silvery glow" sounds fancy but doesn't conjure any sort of image at all. Snobs would say the first is art, and the second is arty.
But the answer doesn't really matter, because nobody is asking the question, unless there happens to be a TV show about it.
By the way, the phrase first appeared in literature in Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, written in the 1400's, and copied by writers ever since, including such notables as Wordsworth. It's definitely not on the reading list of most high-schoolers, heh, heh.
Rick "who could have picked a better example" Denney