| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Master Key by L. Frank Baum: "A boat! a boat!"
Rob stared at them wonderingly, and had much ado to prevent the poor
fellows from hugging him outright, so great was their joy at his
appearance. One of them rolled upon the ground, laughing and crying
by turns, while the other danced and cut capers until he became so
exhausted that he sank down breathless beside his comrade.
"How came you here?" then inquired the boy, in pitying tones.
"We're shipwrecked American sailors from the bark 'Cynthia Jane,'
which went down near here over a month ago," answered the smallest and
thinnest of the two. "We escaped by clinging to a bit of wreckage and
floated to this island, where we have nearly starved to death.
The Master Key |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: walked, holding his sword and stepping cautiously over the sandy
path, bordered with flowers, to the terrace that looked out upon
the garden. Vronsky forgot now all thathe had thought on the way
of the hardships and difficulties of their positon. He thought
of nothing but her, and she wasin reality. He was just going in,
stepping on his whole foot so as not to creak, up the worn steps
of the terrace, when he suddenly remembered what he always
forgot, and what caused the most torturing side of his relations
with her, her son with his questioning--hostile, as he fancied -
eyes.
This boy was more onften than any one else a check upon their
Anna Karenina |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: Helm shall speak to no one." So remonstrance was impossible, and no steering
could be done till the next varnishing day. During these bewildering intervals
the ship usually sailed backwards.
As this poem is to some extent connected with the lay of the Jabberwock,
let me take this opportunity of answering a question that has often been asked
me, how to pronounce "slithy toves." The "i" in "slithy" is long, as in
"writhe"; and "toves" is pronounced so as to rhyme with "groves." Again, the
first "o" in "borogoves" is pronounced like the "o" in "borrow." I have heard
people try to give it the sound of the "o" in "worry. Such is Human
Perversity.
This also seems a fitting occasion to notice the other hard works in that
The Hunting of the Snark |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: he had raved of in delirium. That he really knew nothing of the
hidden cult, save from what my uncle's relentless catechism had
let fall, he soon made clear; and again I strove to think of some
way in which he could possibly have received the weird impressions.
He talked of his dreams in a strangely poetic fashion; making
me see with terrible vividness the damp Cyclopean city of slimy
green stone - whose geometry, he oddly said, was all wrong - and
hear with frightened expectancy the ceaseless, half-mental calling
from underground: "Cthulhu fhtagn", "Cthulhu fhtagn."
These
words had formed part of that dread ritual which told of dead
Call of Cthulhu |
