| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: Draweth occasion from the place in which
I sinned, to put the more my sighs in flight.
There is Romena, where I counterfeited
The currency imprinted with the Baptist,
For which I left my body burned above.
But if I here could see the tristful soul
Of Guido, or Alessandro, or their brother,
For Branda's fount I would not give the sight.
One is within already, if the raving
Shades that are going round about speak truth;
But what avails it me, whose limbs are tied?
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: I hope to see more of him, as they spoke of "CULTIVATING" us, and
Mr. Taylor was quite a PROTEGE of our kind and dear friend, Dr.
Holland, and dedicated his last poem to him. This expression, "I
shall CULTIVATE you," we hear constantly, and it strikes me as oddly
as our Western "BEING RAISED." Indeed, I hear improper Anglicisms
constantly, and they have nearly as many as we have. The upper
classes, here, however, do SPEAK English so roundly and fully,
giving every LETTER its due, that it pleases my ear amazingly.
On Wednesday I go for the first time to Westminster Abbey, on
Epiphany, to hear the Athanasian Creed chanted. I have as yet had
no time for sight-seeing, as the days are so short that necessary
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: within two miles of the Bee Rocks. From the last tree to the low
scrub of the Bee Rocks was open country, where there was hardly
cover enough to hide a wolf. Mowgli trotted along under the
trees, judging distances between branch and branch, occasionally
climbing up a trunk and taking a trial leap from one tree to
another till he came to the open ground, which he studied very
carefully for an hour. Then he turned, picked up Won-tolla's
trail where he had left it, settled himself in a tree with an
outrunning branch some eight feet from the ground, and sat
still, sharpening his knife on the sole of his foot and singing
to himself.
The Second Jungle Book |
