| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Helen of Troy And Other Poems by Sara Teasdale: Turning still to the vanished years,
Love looked back as he took his flight,
And lo, his eyes were filled with tears.
II
(Written in a copy of "La Vita Nuova". For M. C. S.)
If you were Lady Beatrice
And I the Florentine,
I'd never waste my time like this --
If you were Lady Beatrice
I'd woo and then demand a kiss,
Nor weep like Dante here, I ween,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: Cross.
"Three months ago Claudine drove to La Palferine's door in her
splendid carriage with its armorial bearings. Du Bruel's grandfather
was a farmer of taxes ennobled towards the end of Louis Quatorze's
reign. Cherin composed his coat-of-arms for him, so the Count's
coronet looks not amiss above a scutcheon innocent of Imperial
absurdities. In this way, in the short space of three years, Claudine
had carried out the programme laid down for her by the charming,
light-hearted La Palferine.
"One day, just above a month ago, she climbed the miserable staircase
to her lover's lodging; climbed in her glory, dressed like a real
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: the habit of chewing on rhymes without sense and soul to match them
is, like that of using any other narcotic, at once a proof of
feebleness and a debilitating agent. A young man can get rid of
the presumption against him afforded by his writing verses only by
convincing us that they are verses worth writing.
All this sounds hard and rough, but, observe, it is not addressed
to any individual, and of course does not refer to any reader of
these pages. I would always treat any given young person passing
through the meteoric showers which rain down on the brief period of
adolescence with great tenderness. God forgive us if we ever speak
harshly to young creatures on the strength of these ugly truths,
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
