| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: all his foregone adventures seem like mere boy's play. The
occasion of it was as follows:
One morning, when Prince Theseus awoke, he fancied that he must
have had a very sorrowful dream, and that it was still running
in his mind, even now that his eyes were opened. For it
appeared as if the air was full of a melancholy wail; and when
he listened more attentively, he could hear sobs, and groans,
and screams of woe, mingled with deep, quiet sighs, which came
from the king's palace, and from the streets, and from the
temples, and from every habitation in the city. And all these
mournful noises, issuing out of thousands of separate hearts,
Tanglewood Tales |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: Good fellow, if thou art no better with the broadsword than thou art
with the bow and arrow, thou wilt never overcome Robin Hood."
At these words Guy of Gisbourne glared savagely upon Robin. Quoth he,
"Thou hast a merry tongue, thou villain; but take care that thou makest
not too free with it, or I may cut it out from thy throat for thee."
Robin Hood strung his bow and took his place with never a word,
albeit his heartstrings quivered with anger and loathing.
Twice he shot, the first time hitting within an inch of
the wand, the second time splitting it fairly in the middle.
Then, without giving the other a chance for speech, he flung his bow
upon the ground. "There, thou bloody villain!" cried he fiercely,
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy: 'And would you,' she said, and her voice was tremulous, 'have
given up a lady--if you had become engaged to her--and then found
she had had ONE kiss before yours--and would you have--gone away
and left her?'
'One kiss,--no, hardly for that.'
'Two?'
'Well--I could hardly say inventorially like that. Too much of
that sort of thing certainly would make me dislike a woman. But
let us confine our attention to ourselves, not go thinking of
might have beens.'
So Elfride had allowed her thoughts to 'dally with false surmise,'
A Pair of Blue Eyes |
