| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: A closet never pierc'd with crystal eyes--
But the defendant doth that plea deny,
And says in him thy fair appearance lies.
To side this title is impannelled
A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart;
And by their verdict is determined
The clear eye's moiety, and the dear heart's part:
As thus; mine eye's due is thy outward part,
And my heart's right, thy inward love of heart.
XLVII
Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: a pipe, "if you throw matches around near those barrels of paper
you'll have the old tinder-box burning down before you know it."
And Mrs. Manstey, leaning forward, perceived that there were
several barrels of paper and rubbish under the wooden balcony.
At length the work ceased and twilight fell. The sunset was
perfect and a roseate light, transfiguring the distant spire,
lingered late in the west. When it grew dark Mrs. Manstey drew
down the shades and proceeded, in her usual methodical manner, to
light her lamp. She always filled and lit it with her own hands,
keeping a kettle of kerosene on a zinc-covered shelf in a closet.
As the lamp-light filled the room it assumed its usual peaceful
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: here a clue to the effect of polysyllables, above all in
Latin, where they are so common and make so brave an
architecture in the verse; for the polysyllable is a group of
Nature's making. If but some Roman would return from Hades
(Martial, for choice), and tell me by what conduct of the
voice these thundering verses should be uttered - 'AUT
LACEDOE-MONIUM TARENTUM,' for a case in point - I feel as if
I should enter at last into the full enjoyment of the best of
human verses.
But, again, the five feet are all iambic, or supposed to be;
by the mere count of syllables the four groups cannot be all
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