| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: Take my hand, then, walk with me
By the slow soundless crashings of a sea
Down miles on miles of glistening mirrorlike sand,--
Take my hand
And walk with me once more by crumbling walls;
Up mouldering stairs where grey-stemmed ivy clings,
To hear forgotten bells, as evening falls,
Rippling above us invisibly their slowly widening rings. . . .
Did you once love me? Did you bear a name?
Did you once stand before me without shame? . . .
Take my hand: your face is one I know,
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: we were working side by side, said to me with a queer
smile: 'Now, if she only would spring a tidy leak--
like that time when we first left the Channel--it would
put a stopper on this fire. Wouldn't it?' I remarked
irrelevantly, 'Do you remember the rats?'
"We fought the fire and sailed the ship too as carefully
as though nothing had been the matter. The steward
cooked and attended on us. Of the other twelve men,
eight worked while four rested. Everyone took his
turn, captain included. There was equality, and if not
exactly fraternity, then a deal of good feeling. Some-
Youth |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey: with them.
The border needed Wetzel. The settlers would have needed many more years in
which to make permanent homes had it not been for him. He was never a pioneer;
but always a hunter after Indians. When not on the track of the savage foe, he
was in the settlement, with his keen eye and ear ever alert for signs of the
enemy. To the superstitious Indians he was a shadow; a spirit of the border,
which breathed menace from the dark forests. To the settlers he was the right
arm of defense, a fitting leader for those few implacable and unerring
frontiersmen who made the settlement of the West a possibility.
And if this story of one of his relentless pursuits shows the man as he truly
was, loved by pioneers, respected and feared by redmen, and hated by
The Spirit of the Border |
