Page:The Craftsmanship of Writing.djvu/253

THE QUESTION OF STYLE

Onomatopœia, like everything else pertaining to style, is used properly when it does not obtrude itself, when it helps us to form a mental picture without our being aware by what agency the author has attained his result. Take, for instance, one of the most extreme instances in modern writing of an attempt to fit sound to meaning—the libretti to Wagner's Ring. When you read the text quietly by yourself you feel that the whole thing has been overdone; the various tricks of alliteration