Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[bsplfspl]

I was so hung up by the tense in the first two pages of the Ch. 1 of "The Voyage of the Beagle� that I couldn�t bear to continue with the reading. I didn't know why the 2nd par. and some sentences in the 3rd par. of the chapter were in the present tense. If Darwin began with the past tense as his frame of reference, shouldn�t everything stay in the past? Is the 2nd par. in the present because the scenery is constant, permanent, not subject to change in time? Why are the sentences about the scenery in the 3rd par. back to the past but sprinkled with the present? Below are the long quotes from those two pages.


1. Par. 1 of Ch. 1 begins in the past perfect:

After having been twice driven back by heavy south-western gales, Her Majesty�s ship Beagle � sailed from Devonport on the 27th of December 1831. The object of the expedition was to complete the survey of � . On the 6th of January we reached Teneriffe, but were prevented landing, by fears of our bringing the cholera: the next morning we saw the sun rise behind the rugged outline of the Grand Canary island, and suddenly illumine the Peak of Teneriffe, whilst the lower parts were veiled in fleecy clouds. This was the first of many delightful days never to be forgotten. On the 16th of January, 1832, we anchored at Porto Praya, in St. Jago, the chief island of the Cape de Verd archipelago (17).


2. The 2nd paragraph begins in the present:

The neighbourhood of Porto Praya, viewed from the sea, wears a desolate aspect. The volcanic fires of a past age, the scorching heat of a tropical sun, have in most places rendered the soil unfit for vegetation. The country rises in successive steps of table-land � , interspersed with some truncate conical hills, and the horizon is bounded by an irregular chain of more lofty mountains. The scene, as beheld through the hazy atmosphere of this climate, is one of great interest; if, indeed, a person, fresh from sea, and who has just walked, for the first time, in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be a judge of anything but his own happiness � (17-18).



3. The 3rd par. begins in the past, mixed with the present.

One day, two of the officers and myself rode to Ribeira Grande � . Until we reached the valley of St. Martin, the country presented its usual dull brown appearance; but here, a very small rill of water produces a most refreshing margin of luxuriant vegetation. In the course of an hour we arrived at Ribeira Grande, and were surprised at the sight of a large ruined fort and cathedral. This little town, before its harbour was filled up, was the principal place in the island: it now presents a melancholy, but very picturesque appearance. Having procured a black Padre for a guide, and a Spaniard who had served in the Peninsular war as an interpreter, we visited a collection of buildings, of which an ancient church formed the principal part. It is here the governors and captain-generals of the islands have been buried. Some of the tombstones recorded dates of the sixteenth century. The heraldic ornaments were the only things in this retired place that reminded us of Europe. The church or chapel formed one side of a quadrangle, in the middle of which a large clump of bananas were growing. On another side was a hospital � (18).

Work cited: Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species and The Voyage of The Beagle. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

PS: In my own opening paragraph, I had switched to the literary present at "Is the 2nd par. in the present because the scenery is constant, permanent, not subject to change in time? Why are the sentences about the scenery in the 3rd par. back to the past but sprinkled with the present?" Were they right or wrong?

[dragn]

[bsplfspl]

Greg,

Thank you very much for responding to my inquiry in the aftermath of Morakot. I didn�t know what the people in Taiwan had suffered until I saw the pictures in the media in the U.S., and appreciated your response even more.

I also appreciate your methodical, point-by-point way of responding, and I thank you very much for correcting my own tense inconsistency. I am leaf-shaky with tense.

I�ve read probably only 10 books in English in total so far, and the chapter in question is the first one that I�ve ever seen with different tenses in tandem. Can you cite or recommend other articles or books that also use different tenses simultaneously? BF.

[dragn]