The adjective, as an element of language, are frequently vilified by writers:

• “[I was taught] to distrust adjectives as I would later learn to distrust certain people in certain situations.” – Ernest Hemingway
• “[Whoever writes in English] is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective.” – George Orwell
• “Adjectives are frequently the greatest enemy of the substantive.” – Voltaire
• “Most adjectives are also unnecessary. Like adverbs, they are sprinkled into sentences by writers who don’t stop to think that the concept is already in the noun.” – William Zissner
• “The adjective has not been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.” –  E.B. White
• “The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech.” – Clifton Paul Fadiman
• “The road to hell is paved with adjectives.” – Stephen King
• “When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them — then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when close together. They give strength when they are wide apart.” –  Mark Twain
• “Block that adjective!” – Alexander McCall Smith in the Wall Street Journal

The fear is that adjective use equates to overwriting, and the preferred style among some literary circles is stripped back, simple writing.

I enjoy reading simple writing. But I also very much enjoy descriptive writing in which the choice of word – and the use of adjectives – helps me conjure up a picture in my mind of a setting, a character, a sensation. Readers of my book Burning Embers will know that my writing style incorporates adjectives, because I very much want to convey the essence of the scene. Ezra Pound said, “Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something.” I think her words hold the key: use only adjectives that add to the meaning of the nouns and verbs – that reveal more to the reader.

A writer whose works I have long admired is Leconte de Lisle, and he certainly embraces adjectives. Today, I would like to share with you ‘The Jaguar’s Dream’. It is not a long poem, but through wonderful use of description de Lisle creates powerful images and feelings in the reader. First, I will share with you the poem as is stands. Then, to demonstrate the power of description, I will strip out the adjectives and adverbs. For me, the descriptive version is by far the best. But perhaps the truth here is that just as we writers have our own styles, so do we as readers have our own preferences.

The Jaguar’s Dream

Under the swarthy mahoganies, the flowering creepers,

In the sultry, motionless and fly-swarmed air,

Hang, and, winding round below amongst the stumps,

Gently rock the brilliant, quarrelsome parrot,

The yellow-backed spider and the aggressive monkeys.

There it is that the slayer of oxen and horses,

Along the old dead tree-trunks with their mossy bark,

Comes, baleful and tired, with even steps.

On he goes, rubbing his muscular loins, puffing them out;

And, from the mouth gaping with a dull thirst,

A short, harsh breath, with a sudden shake,

Disturbs the great lizards, heated by the noon-day fires,

Whose escape trails spark across the red-brown grass.

In a hollow of the woods forbidden to the sun

He sinks down, stretched out on some flat rock;

With a broad lick of his tongue he gives a gleaming smoothness to his paw;

He half-closes his gold-glinting eyes dulled with slumber;

And, with his dormant strength wrapped in wandering illusion,

Twitching his tail and sending a quiver down his flanks,

He dreams that, deep amidst the green plantations,

With a leap, he is sinking his gory talons

Into the flesh of the startled and bellowing bulls.

The Jaguar’s Dream – adjectives and adverbs removed

Under the mahoganies, the creepers,

In the air,

Hang, and, winding round below amongst the stumps,

Rock the parrot,

The spider and the monkeys.

There it is that the slayer of oxen and horses,

Along the tree-trunks with their bark,

Comes with even steps.

On he goes, rubbing his loins, puffing them out;

And, from the mouth gaping with a thirst,

A breath, with a shake,

Disturbs the lizards, heated by the fires,

Whose escape trails spark across the grass.

In a hollow of the woods forbidden to the sun

He sinks down, stretched out on some rock;

With a lick of his tongue he gives a smoothness to his paw;

He half-closes his eyes dulled with slumber;

And, with his strength wrapped in illusion,

Twitching his tail and sending a quiver down his flanks,

He dreams that, deep amidst the plantations,

With a leap, he is sinking his talons

Into the flesh of the bulls.

French version: Le rêve du jaguar

Sous les noirs acajous, les lianes en fleur,
Dans l’air lourd, immobile et saturé de mouches,
Pendent, et, s’enroulant en bas parmi les souches,
Bercent le perroquet splendide et querelleur,
L’araignée au dos jaune et les singes farouches.
C’est là que le tueur de boeufs et de chevaux,
Le long des vieux troncs morts à l’écorce moussue,
Sinistre et fatigué, revient à pas égaux.
Il va, frottant ses reins musculeux qu’il bossue ;
Et, du mufle béant par la soif alourdi,
Un souffle rauque et bref, d’une brusque secousse,
Trouble les grands lézards, chauds des feux de midi,
Dont la fuite étincelle à travers l’herbe rousse.
En un creux du bois sombre interdit au soleil
Il s’affaisse, allongé sur quelque roche plate ;
D’un large coup de langue il se lustre la patte ;
Il cligne ses yeux d’or hébétés de sommeil ;
Et, dans l’illusion de ses forces inertes,
Faisant mouvoir sa queue et frissonner ses flancs,
Il rêve qu’au milieu des plantations vertes,
Il enfonce d’un bond ses ongles ruisselants
Dans la chair des taureaux effarés et beuglants.

With gratitude to John Harding for the translation.