| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles: By him begot, the son by whom the sire
Was murdered and the mother left to breed
With her own seed, a monstrous progeny.
Then she bewailed the marriage bed whereon
Poor wretch, she had conceived a double brood,
Husband by husband, children by her child.
What happened after that I cannot tell,
Nor how the end befell, for with a shriek
Burst on us Oedipus; all eyes were fixed
On Oedipus, as up and down he strode,
Nor could we mark her agony to the end.
Oedipus Trilogy |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: abandoned all thought for the exhilaration of the present.
They swept out of the little town and down the level road
toward the south. Soon the road dwindled and dis-
appeared, and they struck across a world carpeted with
an endless reach of curly mesquite grass. The wheels
made no sound. The tireless ponies bounded ahead at
an unbroken gallop. The temperate wind, made fragrant
by thousands of acres of blue and yellow wild flowers,
roared gloriously in their ears. The motion was a๋rial,
ecstatic, with a thrilling sense of perpetuity in its effect.
Octavia sat silent, possessed by a feeling of elemental,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: do something for you out of the common. Bring me (it was a clerk he
addressed) one of those Petunia circulars. Now here you can see at a
glance for yourself.' He began reading the prospectus rapidly aloud to me
while I followed its paragraphs with my own eye. His strong,
well-polished thumb-nail ran heavily but speedily down the columns of
figures and such words as gross receipts, increase of population, sinking
fund, redeemable at 105 after 1920, churned vigorously and meaninglessly
through my brain. But I was not going to let him know that to understand
the circular I should have to take it away quietly to my desk in Nassau
Street, and spend an hour with it alone."
"'What is your opinion of Petunia Water sixes?' he inquired."
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