| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: merry season, good things of the year are gathered in in great store.
Brown ale lies ripening in the cellar, hams and bacon hang in the smoke-shed,
and crabs are stowed away in the straw for roasting in the wintertime,
when the north wind piles the snow in drifts around the gables and the fire
crackles warm upon the hearth.
So passed the seasons then, so they pass now, and so they will pass
in time to come, while we come and go like leaves of the tree that fall
and are soon forgotten.
Quoth Robin Hood, snuffing the air, "Here is a fair day,
Little John, and one that we can ill waste in idleness.
Choose such men as thou dost need, and go thou east while I
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: prompt copy, was of less importance than the others); nor with The
Cardinal of Arragon, the manuscript of which I never saw. I
scarcely think it ever existed, though Wilde used to recite proposed
passages for it.
Some years after Wilde's death I was looking over the papers and
letters rescued from Tite Street when I came across loose sheets of
manuscript and typewriting, which I imagined were fragments of The
Duchess of Padua; on putting them together in a coherent form I
recognised that they belonged to the lost Florentine Tragedy. I
assumed that the opening scene, though once extant, had disappeared.
One day, however, Mr. Willard wrote that he possessed a typewritten
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Aspern Papers by Henry James: small things that she, Miss Tita, made herself, like paper
lampshades or mats for the decanters of wine at dinner or those
woolen things that in cold weather were worn on the wrists.
The last few years there had not been many presents;
she could not think what to make, and her aunt had lost her
interest and never suggested. But the people came all the same;
if the Venetians liked you once they liked you forever.
There was something affecting in the good faith of this
sketch of former social glories; the picnic at the Lido had
remained vivid through the ages, and poor Miss Tita evidently
was of the impression that she had had a brilliant youth.
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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 Helen of Troy And Other Poems by Sara Teasdale: We two will search together for the keys,
But not to-day. Let us sit here to-day,
Since all is yours and always will be yours.
(The stars appear faintly one by one.)
K. (After a pause.)
I grow a little drowsy with the dusk.
L. (Singing.)
There was a man that loved a maid,
(Sleep and take your rest)
Over her lips his kiss was laid,
Over her heart, his breast.
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