| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: himself up in a dignified fashion, shook his huge spear at us,
and, turning, vanished on the further side of the slope.
'Hulloa!' holloaed Sir Henry from the other boat; 'our friend
the caravan leader has been as good as his word, and set the
Masai after us. Do you think it will be safe to go ashore?'
I did not think it would be at all safe; but, on the other hand,
we had no means of cooking in the canoes, and nothing that we
could eat raw, so it was difficult to know what to do. At last
Umslopogaas simplified matters by volunteering to go and reconnoitre,
which he did, creeping off into the bush like a snake, while
we hung off in the stream waiting for him. In half an hour he
Allan Quatermain |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: There be two men of all mankind
That I'm forever thinking on:
They chase me everywhere I go, --
Melchizedek, Ucalegon.
Villanelle of Change
Since Persia fell at Marathon,
The yellow years have gathered fast:
Long centuries have come and gone.
And yet (they say) the place will don
A phantom fury of the past,
Since Persia fell at Marathon;
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: Whig party, but felt themselves unable to join the Republicans or
either faction of the Democrats, met elsewhere and nominated John
Bell.
This breaking up of their political enemies into three distinct
camps greatly cheered the Republicans, and when their National
Convention came together in Chicago on May 16, 1860, its members
were filled with the most eager enthusiasm. Its meetings were
held in a huge temporary wooden building called the Wigwam, so
large that 10,000 people could easily assemble in it to watch the
proceedings. Few conventions have shown such depth of feeling.
Not only the delegates on the central platform, but even the
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