| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: a corpse, would not respond so readily to the action of the sucker;
they are more easily extracted from a live body, in which they move
about.
The Epeira, therefore, being a drinker of blood, moderates the
virulence of her sting, even with victims of appalling size, so
sure is she of her retiarian art. The long-legged Tryxalis, {17}
the corpulent Grey Locust, the largest of our Grasshoppers are
accepted without hesitation and sucked dry as soon as numbed.
Those giants, capable of making a hole in the net and passing
through it in their impetuous onrush, can be but rarely caught. I
myself place them on the web. The Spider does the rest. Lavishing
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Of plans abandoned and of new plans vain --
After a weary delving everywhere
For men with every virtue but the Vision --
Could I have known, I say, before I left you
That summer morning, all there was to know --
Even unto the last consuming word
That would have blasted every mortal answer
As lightning would annihilate a leaf,
I might have trembled on that summer morning;
I might have wavered; and I might have failed.
And there are many among men today
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: jesting words to him he answered back as merrily, speech for speech.
So they stepped along toward Tuxford, chatting and laughing,
until they came nigh to the town. Here Little John stopped
and set down the baskets, for he did not care to go into the town
lest he should, perchance, meet some of the Sheriff's men.
"Alas! sweet chucks," quoth he, "here I must leave you.
I had not thought to come this way, but I am glad that I did so.
Now, ere we part, we must drink sweet friendship." So saying,
he unslung the leathern pottle from the end of his staff, and,
drawing the stopper therefrom, he handed it to the lass who had carried
his staff, first wiping the mouth of the pottle upon his sleeve.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
