| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Helen of Troy And Other Poems by Sara Teasdale: I love you, I love you, I love you,
I am the flower at your feet,
The birds and the stars are above you,
My place is more sweet.
The birds and the stars are above you,
They envy the flower in the grass,
For I, only I, while I love you
Can die as you pass.
(Light clouds veil the stars, growing denser constantly.
The castle bell rings for vespers, and rising, the lady moves
to a corner of the parapet and kneels there.)
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: note the presence of strangers in the camp. He saw the
black warriors palavering with the sailors from the cruiser,
and then he saw a lithe, brown giant talking with Lieutenant
D'Arnot and Captain Dufranne.
"Who is that, I wonder," said Tennington to Rokoff, and
as the Russian raised his eyes and met those of the ape-man
full upon him, he staggered and went white.
"SAPRISTI!" he cried, and before Tennington realized what
he intended he had thrown his gun to his shoulder, and
aiming point-blank at Tarzan pulled the trigger. But the
Englishman was close to him--so close that his hand reached
The Return of Tarzan |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: facts or pleasing impressions is a service to the public. It
is even a service to be thankfully proud of having rendered.
The slightest novels are a blessing to those in distress, not
chloroform itself a greater. Our fine old sea-captain's life
was justified when Carlyle soothed his mind with THE KING'S
OWN or NEWTON FORSTER. To please is to serve; and so far
from its being difficult to instruct while you amuse, it is
difficult to do the one thoroughly without the other. Some
part of the writer or his life will crop out in even a vapid
book; and to read a novel that was conceived with any force
is to multiply experience and to exercise the sympathies.
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