know well. Take Longfellow's "Excelsior," for example. Any other piece of poetry or prose which contains plenty of nouns, and that you are sufficiently acquainted with, will answer the same purpose. Say that our list of words commenced with
| inkbottle |
| clock |
| tea |
| mud |
| sword, etc. |
Your poem, thoroughly familiar to you, begins thus:—
Take the first word in the poem that will form a picture, viz., shades. Connect inkbottle with shades—an inkbottle as black as the shades. Make your picture. Clock connect with night; think of an illuminated clock at night. Tea connect with Alpine; you can fancy a party drinking tea on the summit of the Matterhorn. Mud connect with village; a little country village almost buried in mud. Sword connect with youth; you can imagine the daring youth, sword in hand. And so on. After having made all the pictures as clear and distinct to yourself as you possibly can, you have only to think of the words of the poem, and they will immediately suggest the words in your list. Shades will suggest inkbottle; night will suggest
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