| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: And travellers now within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows, see
Vast forms that move fantastically
To a discordant melody;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,
Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,
And laugh--but smile no more.
I well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad,
led us into a train of thought wherein there became manifest an
opinion of Usher's which I mention not so much on account of its
The Fall of the House of Usher |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: in times of stress and anxiety at sea. Was he looking out for a
strange Landfall, or taking with an untroubled mind the bearings
for his last Departure?
It is hard to say; for in that voyage from which no man returns
Landfall and Departure are instantaneous, merging together into one
moment of supreme and final attention. Certainly I do not remember
observing any sign of faltering in the set expression of his wasted
face, no hint of the nervous anxiety of a young commander about to
make land on an uncharted shore. He had had too much experience of
Departures and Landfalls! And had he not "served his time" in the
famous copper-ore trade out of the Bristol Channel, the work of the
The Mirror of the Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: very dark brown, was clustered in round curls, according to the
fashion of those times, when neither smooth bands nor long ringlets
were in vogue; her dress, also in the mode of the day, was of purple
cloth, relieved by a sort of Spanish trimming of black velvet; a
gold watch (watches were not so common then as now) shone at her
girdle. Let the reader add, to complete the picture, refined
features; a complexion, if pale, clear; and a stately air and
carriage, and he will have, at least, as clearly as words can give
it, a correct idea of the exterior of Miss Temple--Maria Temple, as
I afterwards saw the name written in a prayer-book intrusted to me
to carry to church.
Jane Eyre |
