Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

I see nothing wrong with either "to make" or "making" there, but I get
a difference in meaning between them.  "To make" gives a reason for
closing his eyes.  I hear "Making the next moment my own" as allowing
him to close his eyes to still his quaking limbs.

Bill

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The crux is the participial "making".  A participle is so called
because while it has some verb force, it participates in the role of
adjective.  Think of the sentence as written this way:

"I, making the next moment my own, closed my eyes to still my quaking
limbs."

The form is similar to:

"He, needing a rest, stopped at a convenient inn."
"We, having seen all there was to see, departed."

But though clearer for analysis, those are not idiomatic forms.  We
normally cast them (as with the original sentence) in the form:

"Needing a rest, he stopped at a convenient inn."
"Having seen all there was to see, we departed."

In all these instances, the opening phrase (up to the comma) is a
predicate appositive acting as an adjectival phrase modifying the
adjacent noun (or pronoun).  That is easier to see when a bare
participle is the entire appositive:

"Trembling, he told us his horrible tale."
"Sleeping, he was unaware of the commotion downstairs."

The general force is the same as in "He was trembling" or "He was
sleeping": in those, the participle--though now
copulative--adjectivally modifies the subject pronoun.

So "Making the moment my own" is an adjectival participial phrase
modifying "I".

(Mind, such phrases can be considered to simultaneously have an
adverbial quality qualifying the operative verb of the sentence as to
time, cause, manner, condition, concession, and so on; but sticking to
the adjectival quality will be the easiest guide.)