Voice+Lessons

Puzzle #5:
//Mrs. M dreams on about her new life, but her sister grows concerned about her isolation in her room. She emerges to show her sister and her late husband’s friend that she is just fine.// ..and…there was…like a goddess of Victory…she carried herself unwittingly…a feverish triumph in her eyes…

Puzzle #4:
//Even though Mrs. M knows she will cry again when she sees her dead husband laid out in his coffin, she also has intimations of a new happiness.// …beyond that bitter moment…absolutely…but she saw…that would belong to her…a long procession of years to come…

Puzzle #3:
//Mrs. M, “facing an open window,” is soothed by the sounds and smells of nature; the cloud of grief begins to lift.// …quite motionless…she sat…except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her…with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair…as a child who had cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams…

Puzzle #2:
//In her room, Mrs. M has a cozy armchair.// …seemed to reach into her soul…into this she sank…and…pressed down by a physical exhaustion that…haunted her body…

Syntactic (or syntactical?) Puzzle #1:
Directions: The passage in italics gives you context for the sentence you will be working on.

Context: //Upon hearing the news, from one of his friends, that her husband has been killed in a railway accident, Mrs. M bursts out crying.//

The sentence you will be working on has been separated into chunks:
 * alone…when the storm of grief had spent itself…she went away to her room…**

Keeping the phrases (in bold) in tact, move them around and create a sentence that fits the context of the story. Do not add anything new except for appropriate punctuation.


 * 1) Write the sentence down.
 * 2) Explain in 1-2 sentences the rationale behind why you arranged the sentence the way that you did.