| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Poems by Oscar Wilde: And why do the mourners walk a-row?
O 't is Hugh of Amiens my sister's son
Who is lying stark, for his day is done.
Nay, nay, for I see white lilies clear,
It is no strong man who lies on the bier.
O 't is old Dame Jeannette that kept the hall,
I knew she would die at the autumn fall.
Dame Jeannette had not that gold-brown hair,
Old Jeannette was not a maiden fair.
O 't is none of our kith and none of our kin,
(Her soul may our Lady assoil from sin!)
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: did the rams of the flock hasten forth to pasture, but the
ewes bleated unmilked about the pens, for their udders were
swollen to bursting. Then their lord, sore stricken with
pain, felt along the backs of all the sheep as they stood
up before him, and guessed not in his folly how that my men
were bound beneath the breasts of his thick-fleeced flocks.
Last of all the sheep came forth the ram, cumbered with his
wool, and the weight of me and my cunning. And the strong
Polyphemus laid his hands on him and spake to him saying:
'"Dear ram, wherefore, I pray thee, art thou the last of
all the flocks to go forth from the cave, who of old wast
The Odyssey |
