| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: Come bulging shapes from darkness, loom gigantic,
Or huddle in dark again. . . .A clock ticks clearly,
A gas-jet steadily whirs, light streams across me;
Two church bells, with alternate beat, strike nine;
And through these things my pencil pushes softly
To weave grey webs of lines on this clear page.
Snow falls and melts; the eaves make liquid music;
Black wheel-tracks line the snow-touched street; I turn
And look one instant at the half-dark gardens,
Where skeleton elm-trees reach with frozen gesture
Above unsteady lamps,--with black boughs flung
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: was a first-rate mariner besides, sailed for some time in the
island steamers, and steered a whaleboat on the Hamakua coast. At
length it came in Keawe's mind to have a sight of the great world
and foreign cities, and he shipped on a vessel bound to San
Francisco.
This is a fine town, with a fine harbour, and rich people
uncountable; and, in particular, there is one hill which is covered
with palaces. Upon this hill Keawe was one day taking a walk with
his pocket full of money, viewing the great houses upon either hand
with pleasure, "What fine houses these are!" he was thinking, "and
how happy must those people be who dwell in them, and take no care
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: of the water. Thereupon the prince did as she bade, and presently
the brazen boat came skimming over the water more swiftly than
the wind. Again the queen and the prince entered it, and again it
carried them to the other side whence they had come.
No sooner had the queen set foot upon the shore than she stopped
and gathered up a handful of sand. Then, turning as quick as
lightning, she flung it into the prince's face. "Be a black dog,"
she cried in a loud voice, "and join your comrades!"
And now it was that the ring that the prince's mother had given
him stood him in good stead. But for it he would have become a
black dog like those others, for thus it had happened to all
|
