All 50 Uses of
compose
in
David Copperfield
- DAVID COPPERFIELD by CHARLES DICKENS PREFACE TO 1850 EDITION I do not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from this Book, in the first sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with the composure which this formal heading would seem to require.†
Chpt Pref.
- PREFACE TO THE CHARLES DICKENS EDITION I REMARKED in the original Preface to this Book, that I did not find it easy to get sufficiently far away from it, in the first sensations of having finished it, to refer to it with the composure which this formal heading would seem to require.†
Chpt Pref.
- The setting sun was glowing on the strange lady, over the garden-fence, and she came walking up to the door with a fell rigidity of figure and composure of countenance that could have belonged to nobody else.†
Chpt 1-3 *
- Over the little mantelshelf, was a picture of the 'Sarah Jane' lugger, built at Sunderland, with a real little wooden stern stuck on to it; a work of art, combining composition with carpentry, which I considered to be one of the most enviable possessions that the world could afford.†
Chpt 1-3
- All the rest of that day, and from morning to night afterwards, she sat at that desk, scratching composedly with a hard pen, speaking in the same imperturbable whisper to everybody; never relaxing a muscle of her face, or softening a tone of her voice, or appearing with an atom of her dress astray.†
Chpt 7-9
- Mr. Micawber's affairs, although past their crisis, were very much involved by reason of a certain 'Deed', of which I used to hear a great deal, and which I suppose, now, to have been some former composition with his creditors, though I was so far from being clear about it then, that I am conscious of having confounded it with those demoniacal parchments which are held to have, once upon a time, obtained to a great extent in Germany.†
Chpt 10-12
- By way of going in for anything that might be on the cards, I call to mind that Mr. Micawber, about this time, composed a petition to the House of Commons, praying for an alteration in the law of imprisonment for debt.†
Chpt 10-12
- But the more he asked Mrs. Micawber to look up, the more she fixed her eyes on nothing; and the more he asked her to compose herself, the more she wouldn't.†
Chpt 10-12
- I had been discomposed enough before; but I was so much the more discomposed by this unexpected behaviour, that I was on the point of slinking off, to think how I had best proceed, when there came out of the house a lady with her handkerchief tied over her cap, and a pair of gardening gloves on her hands, wearing a gardening pocket like a toll-man's apron, and carrying a great knife.†
Chpt 13-15
- I had been discomposed enough before; but I was so much the more discomposed by this unexpected behaviour, that I was on the point of slinking off, to think how I had best proceed, when there came out of the house a lady with her handkerchief tied over her cap, and a pair of gardening gloves on her hands, wearing a gardening pocket like a toll-man's apron, and carrying a great knife.†
Chpt 13-15
- For your very great politeness, I am sure,' said Miss Murdstone; with an irony which no more affected my aunt, than it discomposed the cannon I had slept by at Chatham.†
Chpt 13-15
- But the Doctor himself was the idol of the whole school: and it must have been a badly composed school if he had been anything else, for he was the kindest of men; with a simple faith in him that might have touched the stone hearts of the very urns upon the wall.†
Chpt 16-18
- But the blots were more expressive to me than the best composition; for they showed me that Peggotty had been crying all over the paper, and what could I have desired more?†
Chpt 16-18
- Sometimes I see the butcher, bloody but confident; sometimes I see nothing, and sit gasping on my second's knee; sometimes I go in at the butcher madly, and cut my knuckles open against his face, without appearing to discompose him at all.†
Chpt 16-18
- But I remarked two things: first, that though Annie soon recovered her composure, and was quite herself, there was a blank between her and Mr. Wickfield which separated them wholly from each other; secondly, that Mr. Wickfield seemed to dislike the intimacy between her and Agnes, and to watch it with uneasiness.†
Chpt 19-21
- Then his face became composed.†
Chpt 19-21
- She said no more, except, 'My dear child, never ask me what it was, and don't refer to it,' until she had perfectly regained her composure, when she told me she was quite herself now, and we might get out.†
Chpt 22-24
- I asked him, with a better appearance of composure than I could have thought possible a minute before, whether he had made his feelings known to Agnes.†
Chpt 25-27
- Copperfield and myself,' said Miss Murdstone, with severe composure, 'are connexions.†
Chpt 25-27
- 'Do you really mean that?' said I. He was so composed, that I fancied he must have some other meaning.†
Chpt 25-27
- Having laid in the materials for a bowl of punch, to be compounded by Mr. Micawber; having provided a bottle of lavender-water, two wax-candles, a paper of mixed pins, and a pincushion, to assist Mrs. Micawber in her toilette at my dressing-table; having also caused the fire in my bedroom to be lighted for Mrs. Micawber's convenience; and having laid the cloth with my own hands, I awaited the result with composure.†
Chpt 28-30
- We should not have been much discomposed, I dare say, by the appearance of Steerforth himself, but we became in a moment the meekest of the meek before his respectable serving-man.†
Chpt 28-30
- So very emphatically and unexpectedly, that we were all three discomposed; until Tiffey came in with the bill.†
Chpt 31-33
- I cannot say that they were very like, or that they particularly resembled any flowers that have ever come under my observation; but I knew from the paper round them which was accurately copied, what the composition was.†
Chpt 31-33
- I noticed how her eye lighted on me, when she thought my attention otherwise occupied; and what a curious process of hesitation appeared to be going on within her, while she preserved her outward stiffness and composure.†
Chpt 34-36
- My aunt, on the other hand, was in a composed frame of mind, which was a lesson to all of us — to me, I am sure.†
Chpt 34-36
- Traddles, who would not have smiled for the world, replied composedly: 'But you are a very good penman, sir.†
Chpt 34-36
- When we were quite composed, and Dora had gone up-stairs to put some rose-water to her eyes, Miss Mills rang for tea.†
Chpt 37-39
- Now, Mr. Copperfield, I hope that you will not render it necessary for me to open, even for a quarter of an hour, that closed page in the book of life, and unsettle, even for a quarter of an hour, grave affairs long since composed.'†
Chpt 37-39
- I signed myself, hers distractedly; and I couldn't help feeling, while I read this composition over, before sending it by a porter, that it was something in the style of Mr. Micawber.†
Chpt 37-39
- J. looking out of window, and barking violently at dustman, occasioned smile to overspread features of D. (Of such slight links is chain of life composed!†
Chpt 37-39
- In her placid sisterly manner; with her beaming eyes; with her tender voice; and with that sweet composure, which had long ago made the house that held her quite a sacred place to me; she soon won me from this weakness, and led me on to tell all that had happened since our last meeting.†
Chpt 37-39
- With a lightened heart, though with a profound sense of the weighty importance of my task, I devoted the whole afternoon to the composition of the draft of this letter; for which great purpose, Agnes relinquished her desk to me.†
Chpt 37-39
- Whenever she was particularly discomposed, she always performed one of these pedestrian feats; and the amount of her discomposure might always be estimated by the duration of her walk.†
Chpt 40-42
- Whenever she was particularly discomposed, she always performed one of these pedestrian feats; and the amount of her discomposure might always be estimated by the duration of her walk.†
Chpt 40-42
- They were both upright in their carriage, formal, precise, composed, and quiet.†
Chpt 40-42
- 'Nor to me, if you please,' said I. Mr. Littimer, without being at all discomposed, signified by a slight obeisance, that anything that was most agreeable to us was most agreeable to him; and began again.†
Chpt 46-48
- 'Are you composed enough,' said I, 'to speak on the subject which so interested you — I hope Heaven may remember it!†
Chpt 46-48
- 'Betsey Trotwood don't look a likely subject for the tender passion,' said my aunt, composedly, 'but the time was, Trot, when she believed in that man most entirely.†
Chpt 46-48
- Making due allowance for Mr. Micawber's lofty style of composition, and for the extraordinary relish with which he sat down and wrote long letters on all possible and impossible occasions, I still believed that something important lay hidden at the bottom of this roundabout communication.†
Chpt 49-51
- 'I am the agent and friend of Mr. Wickfield, sir,' said Traddles, in a composed and business-like way.†
Chpt 52-54
- Opening this packet, with his old flourish, and glancing at the contents, as if he cherished an artistic admiration of their style of composition, he began to read as follows: ' "Dear Miss Trotwood and gentlemen —"†
Chpt 52-54
- Mr. Micawber, genteelly adjusting his chin in his cravat, presently proceeded with his composition.†
Chpt 52-54 *
- This, and a few moments' reflection, pacified her; but she was not at all disconcerted by what she had done (though I cannot say as much for her bonnet) and resumed her seat composedly.†
Chpt 52-54
- '— thousand, do you mean?' inquired my aunt, with uncommon composure, 'or pounds?'†
Chpt 52-54
- My aunt, retaining her stiff position, and apparent composure, assented with a nod.†
Chpt 52-54
- After the relief of tears, she soon became composed, and even cheerful.†
Chpt 52-54
- When some white-headed billows thundered on, and dashed themselves to pieces before they reached the land, every fragment of the late whole seemed possessed by the full might of its wrath, rushing to be gathered to the composition of another monster.†
Chpt 55-57
- They were making out to me, in an agitated way — I don't know how, for the little I could hear I was scarcely composed enough to understand — that the lifeboat had been bravely manned an hour ago, and could do nothing; and that as no man would be so desperate as to attempt to wade off with a rope, and establish a communication with the shore, there was nothing left to try; when I noticed that some new sensation moved the people on the beach, and saw them part, and Ham come breaking…†
Chpt 55-57
- Emma, my love,' said Mr. Micawber, clearing his throat in his magnificent way, 'my friend Mr. Thomas Traddles is so obliging as to solicit, in my ear, that he should have the privilege of ordering the ingredients necessary to the composition of a moderate portion of that Beverage which is peculiarly associated, in our minds, with the Roast Beef of Old England.†
Chpt 55-57
Definitions:
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(compose as in: compose myself) to calm someone or settle something
-
(compose as in: compose a poem) to write or create something with care -- especially music or a literary work, but could be other things as diverse as a plan or a letter