| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: primrose bloom of the first stars, and faint foregleamings of the
rising moon creeping over the hill behind us! What perfection of
companionship without words, as we rode together through a strange
land, along the edge of the dark!
When we finished the thirty-fifth mile, and drew up in the courtyard
of the station at Frydenlund, Graygown sprang out, with a little
sigh of regret.
"Is it last night," she cried, "or to-morrow morning? I have n't
the least idea what time it is; it seems as if we had been
travelling in eternity."
"It is just ten o'clock," I answered, "and the landlord says there
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: eyes followed it down the current. How slowly it appeared
to move! What a sluggish stream!
He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his
wife and children. The water, touched to gold by the early
sun, the brooding mists under the banks at some distance down
the stream, the fort, the soldiers, the piece of drift -- all
had distracted him. And now he became conscious of a new
disturbance. Striking through the thought of his dear
ones was sound which he could neither ignore nor understand,
a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a
blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: But now the man was dead, and would come again
Never, though she might honor ineffably
The flimsy wraith of him she conjured
Out of a dream with his wand of absence.
And if the truth were now but a mummery,
Meriting pride's implacable irony,
So much the worse for pride. Moreover,
Save her or fail, there was conscience always.
Meanwhile, a few misgivings of innocence,
Imploring to be sheltered and credited,
Were not amiss when she revealed them.
|
