Remarks by Edna Wahlert McCourt | V2Melody Quotations

“We were just recollecting how speech in strange tongues came to men in the Bible days.”

Connecting an unexpected gift of speech with an ancient sacred memory · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“He doesn't know! he can't explain it. He says it was a miracle, his talk. He says he knows he couldn't do it again, even if he tried.”

Leaving inspired speech suspended between psychology and miracle · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“However, I caught the captain and the Senator whispering under their flags, and I heard them laugh softly, a little like two wondering boys.”

Ending public solemnity with a private moment of wonder and fellowship · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“That was a pretty good speech for a fellow who never before uttered a real paragraph of English.”

Measuring eloquence by its effect rather than polished fluency · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Art
Truth

“For a moment the captain and the crowd gazed into each other.”

Imagining understanding as a moment of mutual recognition · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“I cannot speak, but you will understand.”

Trusting shared feeling to bridge imperfect language · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“Ze world is like ze barrel of apples—not any apple is safe if zer is one rotten apple in ze barrel.”

A homely metaphor for danger spreading through a connected world · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Truth
War

“For no man lives in ze small town any more. Each man lives in ze world.”

A fictional speaker's declaration of global human interdependence · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“But I am telling the truth that this man who could not speak English did speak it—with earnest, uplifted simplicity, and without any halting.”

Framing sincere speech as a transformation that exceeds technical fluency · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Hope
Truth

“As the shouting died, words were born to the captain.”

Portraying speech as something created at the edge of silence · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“Leave it to a crowd to catch the real dramatics of a gesture!”

A wry observation on collective instinct and theatrical meaning · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Art
Truth

“Unconsciously he had symbolized whatever speech he could make, whatever speech he could wish to make.”

Showing how a gesture can become the equivalent of eloquence · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Art
Truth

“If only I could talk to you! If only I could make you understand!”

Distilling the anguish of failed communication · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“He did sway toward the crowd hungrily, with something like eagerness and sadness in his eyes.”

Joining the desire for connection with the pain of being unable to speak · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“A real man can speak to real men with something besides words!”

Asserting that presence and sincerity can communicate beyond language · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“Almost imperceptibly, but certainly, the crowd swayed toward it.”

Capturing the quiet force by which music redirects attention · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Music
Truth

“From a dance-hall somewhere up the street floated insidious rag-time.”

Using distant music to suggest distraction and shifting mood · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Art
Music

“And all pretense was gone, and any barrier of tongue.”

Marking the moment urgency dissolves social and linguistic barriers · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“It will take a bigger man than me to move them now.”

Recognising the limits of one's own influence · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Hope
Truth

“I haven't been able to put over the deep necessity.”

Expressing the frustration of failing to communicate an urgent truth · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

“They see the illogicalness of my position.”

A rare moment of political self-awareness · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Truth

“Those boys are neither fools nor leaves of an aspen, to bend to my will.”

Acknowledging the independence of an audience resistant to pressure · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Nature
Truth

“He put himself through all the conventional gestures; his vocabulary through every pace, from flowery oratory to good U. S. A. slang.”

Observing the theatrical range demanded by public persuasion · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Art
Truth

“He let his voice range from fortissimo through tremolo and back again.”

Describing public speech through the expressive language of music · Short story, The Captain and the Miracle (1918)

Art
Music

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