Resolved questions
skies had rained, snowed, hailed, and blown ink through the varying seasons of the year

skies had rained, snowed, hailed, and blown ink through the varying seasons of the year.---Charles Dickens
How to understand this sentence? rain, snow, hail, and blow are intransitive verbs, why they can be followed by an object "ink"?

Additional Details:

Sorry, I think I should provide the whole sentence:
“There could not well be more ink splashed about it, if it had been roofless from its first construction, and the skies had rained, snowed, hailed, and blown ink through the varying seasons of the year.”--- David Copperfield

For learning: English
Base language: English
Category: Language

Share:

0
xiongdan1985
Mar 02, 2013
1 answer
89 views

Flag

0 comments

Please enter between 2 and 2000 characters.

Answers

Sort by:

Best Answer - Chosen by Voting

English transitive verbs can often be converted to intransitive and vice versa. In this case, it means that ink was falling from the sky in the form of rain, snow, hail, etc. "Blow" would mean that the ink is blown around.

I don't know where this quote comes from, but it probably doesn't refer to "real" ink, but rather to something for which ink is a metaphor.

0
Zaatarski
Mar 02, 2013
2 comments - Add a comment

Flag