| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Flower after flower, I plucked them; flower by flower
Cast them behind me, ruined, withered, dead.
Full many a shining godhead disappeared.
From the bright rank that once adorned her brow
The old child's Olympus
* * * * *
Gone are the fair old dreams, and one by one,
As, one by one, the means to reach them went,
As, one by one, the stars in riot and disgrace,
I squandered what . . .
There shut the door, alas! on many a hope
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: was almost as if he had been aware of her lurking doubts, and had
wanted the air cleared as much as she did.
It was as clear, thank Heaven! as the bright outer light that
surprised her almost with a touch of summer when she issued from
the house for her daily round of the gardens. She had left Boyne
at his desk, indulging herself, as she passed the library door,
by a last peep at his quiet face, where he bent, pipe in his
mouth, above his papers, and now she had her own morning's task
to perform. The task involved on such charmed winter days almost
as much delighted loitering about the different quarters of her
demesne as if spring were already at work on shrubs and borders.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: The young cavalier we have so often mentioned had probably never
yet approached so near the person of his Sovereign, and he
pressed forward as far as the line of warders permitted, in order
to avail himself of the present opportunity. His companion, on
the contrary, cursing his imprudence, kept pulling him backwards,
till Walter shook him off impatiently, and letting his rich cloak
drop carelessly from one shoulder; a natural action, which
served, however, to display to the best advantage his well-
proportioned person. Unbonneting at the same time, he fixed his
eager gaze on the Queen's approach, with a mixture of respectful
curiosity and modest yet ardent admiration, which suited so well
Kenilworth |
