| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: how can you expect me to gather bloom and vigour here, pining in
solitude and restless anxiety from day to day? - It would serve you
right to come back and find my good looks entirely wasted away. I
would beg my uncle and aunt, or my brother, to come and see me, but
I do not like to complain of my loneliness to them, and indeed
loneliness is the least of my sufferings. But what is he, doing -
what is it that keeps him away? It is this ever-recurring
question, and the horrible suggestions it raises, that distract me.
July 3rd. - My last bitter letter has wrung from him an answer at
last, and a rather longer one than usual; but still I don't know
what to make of it. He playfully abuses me for the gall and
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: aux chiens et aux oiseaux de l'air. Ce que laisseront les chiens,
les oiseaux de l'air le mangeront . . . Ah! Iokanaan, Iokanaan, tu
as ete le seul homme que j'ai aime. Tous les autres hommes
m'inspirent du degout. Mais, toi, tu etais beau. Ton corps etait
une colonne d'ivoire sur un socle d'argent. C'etait un jardin plein
de colombes et de lis d'argent. C'etait une tour d'argent ornee de
boucliers d'ivoire. Il n'y avait rien au monde d'aussi blanc que
ton corps. Il n'y avait rien au monde d'aussi noir que tes cheveux.
Dans le monde tout entier il n'y avait rien d'aussi rouge que ta
bouche. Ta voix etait un encensoir qui repandait d'etranges
parfums, et quand je te regardais j'entendais une musique etrange!
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: from the city earlier in the day.
At first he saw no indication that there was another
than himself anywhere about. The plain was deserted.
No myriad bowmen camped now beneath the overhanging
verdure of the giant trees. No gory heaps of tortured
dead defaced the beauty of the scarlet sward.
All was silence. All was peace.
The Heliumite, scarce pausing at the forest's verge,
pushed on across the plain toward the city, when presently
he descried a huddled form in the grass at his feet.
It was the body of a man, lying prone. Carthoris turned
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
