The Custom House -- First Sentence

You may have noticed that in Hawthorne's introduction to The Scarlet Letter -- called "The Custom House" -- he is rather verbose and convoluted in his descriptions. A wonderful example of this writing style comes in the first paragraph of the actual tale -- on page 4 in your edition:

"In my native town of Salem, at the head of what, half a century ago, in the days of old King Derby, was a bustling wharf--but which is now burdened with decayed wooden warehouses, and exhibits few or no symptoms of commercial life; except, perhaps, a bark or brig, half-way down its melancholy length, discharging hides; or, nearer at hand, a Nova Scotia schooner, pitching out her cargo of firewood--at the head, I say, of this dilapidated wharf, which the tide often overflows, and along which, at the base and in the rear of the row of buildings, the track of many languid years is seen in a border of unthrifty grass--here, with a view from its front windows adown this not very enlivening prospect, and thence across the harbour, stands a spacious edifice of brick."

I was just commenting to Voice of Reason earlier today that it would be a real romp of an exercise to diagram that sentence. Lo, I find that someone has actually done this. Click here or onto the diagram above to enjoy the full-size diagram.