| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: battalions, according to their power of enduring the fatigues of a
long march.
The young man of whom we are now speaking, was much in advance of a
column of recruits, known to be on its way from Cherbourg, which the
mayor of Carentan was awaiting hourly, in order to give them their
billets for the night. The young man walked with a jades step, but
firmly, and his gait seemed to show that he had long been familiar
with military hardships. Though the moon was shining on the meadows
about Carentan, he had noticed heavy clouds on the horizon, and the
fear of being overtaken by a tempest may have hurried his steps, which
were certainly more brisk than his evident lassitude could have
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: have seen men hold a contract upon whose terms they were finally
passing. "Well, you have got it back now, anyway." And he handed
it to me.
"Only a piece of it!" I exclaimed, always lightly. And as I took
it from him his hand chanced to touch mine. It was cold as ice.
"They ain't through readin' the rest," he explained easily.
"Don't you throw it away! After they've taken such trouble."
"That's true," I answered. "I wonder if it's Pounds or Ounces I'm
indebted to."
Thus we made further merriment as we rode down into the great
basin. Before us, the horse and boot tracks showed plain in the
The Virginian |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: "Tell me what you're saying to me now, John Gorham,
Or you'll never see as much of me as ribbons any more;
I'll vanish in as many ways as I have toes and fingers,
And you'll not follow far for one where flocks have been before." --
"I'm sorry now you never saw the flocks, Jane Wayland,
But you're the one to make of them as many as you need.
And then about the vanishing. It's I who mean to vanish;
And when I'm here no longer you'll be done with me indeed." --
"That's a way to tell me what I am, John Gorham!
How am I to know myself until I make you smile?
Try to look as if the moon were making faces at you,
|
