| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: carrying onwards so many lives. I would fain claim for myself
the faculty of so much insight as can be expressed in a voice of
sympathy and compassion.
It seems to me that in one, at least, authoritative quarter of
criticism I am suspected of a certain unemotional, grim
acceptance of facts; of what the French would call secheresse du
coeur. Fifteen years of unbroken silence before praise or blame
testify sufficiently to my respect for criticism, that fine
flower of personal expression in the garden of letters. But this
is more of a personal matter, reaching the man behind the work,
and therefore it may be alluded to in a volume which is a
Some Reminiscences |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: simple words--TOO LATE. The nature and character of slavery have
been subjects of an almost endless variety of artistic
representation; and after the brilliant achievements in that
field, and while those achievements are yet fresh in the memory
of the million, he who would add another to the legion, must
possess the charm of transcendent excellence, or apologize for
something worse than rashness. The reader is, therefore,
assured, with all due promptitude, that his attention is not
invited to a work of ART, but to a work of FACTS--Facts, terrible
and almost incredible, it may be yet FACTS, nevertheless.
I am authorized to say that there is not a fictitious name nor
My Bondage and My Freedom |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: THE WIND IS WITHOUT THERE AND HOWLS IN THE TREES
A VALENTINE'S SONG
HAIL! CHILDISH SLAVES OF SOCIAL RULES
SWALLOWS TRAVEL TO AND FRO
TO MESDAMES ZASSETSKY AND GARSCHINE
TO MADAME GARSCHINE
MUSIC AT THE VILLA MARINA
FEAR NOT, DEAR FRIEND, BUT FREELY LIVE YOUR DAYS
LET LOVE GO, IF GO SHE WILL
I DO NOT FEAR TO OWN ME KIN
I AM LIKE ONE THAT FOR LONG DAYS HAD SATE
|
