| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: confidence she rebuffed with violence.
"An' wid all deh bringin' up she had, how could she?"
moaningly she asked of her son. "Wid all deh talkin' wid her I did
an' deh t'ings I tol' her to remember? When a girl is bringed up
deh way I bringed up Maggie, how kin she go teh deh devil?"
Jimmie was transfixed by these questions. He could not
conceive how under the circumstances his mother's daughter and his
sister could have been so wicked.
His mother took a drink from a squdgy bottle that sat on the
table. She continued her lament.
"She had a bad heart, dat girl did, Jimmie. She was wicked
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: things into sentiment--before the exquisite well-known lines of
Polyhymnia's veil. Then she stretched forth her hand. Wilfrid rose.
When he looked at Seraphita she was lying on the bear's-skin, her head
resting on her hand, her face calm, her eyes brilliant. Wilfrid gazed
at her silently; but his face betrayed a deferential fear in its
almost timid expression.
"Yes, dear," he said at last, as though he were answering some
question; "we are separated by worlds. I resign myself; I can only
adore you. But what will become of me, poor and alone!"
"Wilfrid, you have Minna."
He shook his head.
Seraphita |
