| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: outposts, he planted forks at the foot of the rampart, he drove
caltrops into the ground, and he commanded the Libyans to bring him a
whole forest that he might set it on fire and burn Carthage like a den
of foxes.
Spendius went on obstinately with the siege. He sought to invent
terrible machines such as had never before been constructed.
The other Barbarians, encamped at a distance on the isthmus, were
amazed at these delays; they murmured, and they were let loose.
Then they rushed with their cutlasses and javelins, and beat against
the gates with them. But the nakedness of their bodies facilitating
the infliction of wounds, the Carthaginians massacred them freely; and
Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: "Damn yer ol' hide," yelled Jimmie, madly. Maggie shrieked
and ran into the other room. To her there came the sound of a
storm of crashes and curses. There was a great final thump and
Jimmie's voice cried: "Dere, damn yeh, stay still." Maggie opened
the door now, and went warily out. "Oh, Jimmie."
He was leaning against the wall and swearing. Blood stood
upon bruises on his knotty fore-arms where they had scraped against
the floor or the walls in the scuffle. The mother lay screeching
on the floor, the tears running down her furrowed face.
Maggie, standing in the middle of the room, gazed about her.
The usual upheaval of the tables and chairs had taken place.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Rivers to the Sea by Sara Teasdale: The sun goes down in yellow mist,
The sky is fresh with dewy stars
Above a sea of amethyst.
Yet in the city of my love
High noon burns all the heavens bare--
For him the happiness of light,
For me a delicate despair.
II
Off Algiers
Oh give me neither love nor tears,
Nor dreams that sear the night with fire,
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