| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rivers to the Sea by Sara Teasdale: To him who tuned my heart its distant song.
So might a woman who in loneliness
Had borne a child, dreaming of days to come,
Wonder if it would please its father's eyes.
But long before I ever heard your name,
Always the undertone's unchanging note
RIVERS TO THE SEA
In all my singing had prefigured you,
Foretold you as a spark foretells a flame.
Yet I was free as an untethered cloud
In the great space between the sky and sea,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: Dumpling.
CHARLOTTE
A mighty pretty story! And so you would make
me believe that the sensible Maria would give up
Dumpling manor, and the all-accomplished Dimple as
a husband, for the absurd, ridiculous reason, forsooth,
because she despises and abhors him. Just as if a
lady could not be privileged to spend a man's fortune,
ride in his carriage, be called after his name, and call
him her nown dear lovee when she wants money, with-
out loving and respecting the great he-creature. Oh!
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Statesman by Plato: longer way; while we are fresh, we shall get on better. And now attend to
the division.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Let me hear.
STRANGER: The tame walking herding animals are distributed by nature into
two classes.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Upon what principle?
STRANGER: The one grows horns; and the other is without horns.
YOUNG SOCRATES: Clearly.
STRANGER: Suppose that you divide the science which manages pedestrian
animals into two corresponding parts, and define them; for if you try to
invent names for them, you will find the intricacy too great.
Statesman |
