| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: As we went toward the house, we met Ambrosch and Anton,
starting off with their milking-pails to hunt the cows.
I joined them, and Leo accompanied us at some distance,
running ahead and starting up at us out of clumps of ironweed,
calling, `I'm a jack rabbit,' or, `I'm a big bull-snake.'
I walked between the two older boys--straight, well-made fellows,
with good heads and clear eyes. They talked about their school
and the new teacher, told me about the crops and the harvest,
and how many steers they would feed that winter. They were easy
and confidential with me, as if I were an old friend of the family--
and not too old. I felt like a boy in their company, and all manner
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: shade of the grove of fruit-trees near the house, it seemed to give
out a golden light of its own.
She dressed generally in a white frock, with a skirt of walking
length, showing her neat, laced, brown boots. If there was any
colour about her costume it was just a bit of blue perhaps. No
exertion seemed to distress her. I have seen her land from the
dinghy after a long pull in the sun (she rowed herself about a good
deal) with no quickened breath and not a single hair out of its
place. In the morning when she came out on the verandah for the
first look westward, Sumatra way, over the sea, she seemed as fresh
and sparkling as a dewdrop. But a dewdrop is evanescent, and there
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: as far as Appii Forum, and The Three Taverns.
(Acts 28:15)
Herodion, Apelles, Amplias,
And Andronicus? Is it you I see --
At last? And is it you now that are gazing
As if in doubt of me? Was I not saying
That I should come to Rome? I did say that;
And I said furthermore that I should go
On westward, where the gateway of the world
Lets in the central sea. I did say that,
But I say only, now, that I am Paul --
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