Today's Stichomancy for Leonard Cohen

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare:

Therefore we 'll knock. [Knocks.]

WATCH. [Within] Qui est la?

PUCELLE. Paysans, pauvres gens de France; Poor market folks that come to sell their corn.

WATCH. Enter, go in; the market bell is rung.

PUCELLE. Now, Rouen, I 'll shake thy bulwarks to the ground.

[Exeunt.]

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson:

Below the yew--it still is there-- Our phantom voices haunt the air As we were still at play, And I can hear them call and say: "How far is it to Babylon?"

Ah, far enough, my dear, Far, far enough from here-- Smiling and kind, you grace a shelf Too high for me to reach myself. Reach down a hand, my dear, and take These rhymes for old acquaintance' sake!

A Child's Garden of Verses

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri:

Guinicelli died in 1276. Many of Cavalcanti's writings, hitherto in MS. are now publishing at Florence" Esprit des Journaux, Jan. 1813.

v. 97. He perhaps is born.] Some imagine, with much probability, that Dante here augurs the greatness of his own poetical reputation. Others have fancied that he prophesies the glory of Petrarch. But Petrarch was not yet born.

v. 136. suitor.] Provenzano salvani humbled himself so far for the sake of one of his friends, who was detained in captivity by Charles I of Sicily, as personally to supplicate the people of Sienna to contribute the sum required by the king for his ransom:

The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary)

The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson:

log when the thermometer goes (as it does go) away - away below zero, till it can be seen no more by the eye of man - not the thermometer, which is still perfectly visible, but the mercury, which curls up into the bulb like a hibernating bear; you should also see the lad who 'does chores' for us, with his red stockings and his thirteen year old face, and his highly manly tramp into the room; and his two alternative answers to all questions about the weather: either 'Cold,' or with a really lyrical movement of the voice, 'LOVELY - raining!'

Will you take this miserable scarp for what it is worth? Will you also understand that I am the man to blame, and my wife is really