| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: like the bar in music, break up the verse for utterance, fall
uniambically; and in declaiming a so-called iambic verse, it
may so happen that we never utter one iambic foot. And yet
to this neglect of the original beat there is a limit.
'Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts,' (3)
is, with all its eccentricities, a good heroic line; for
though it scarcely can be said to indicate the beat of the
iamb, it certainly suggests no other measure to the ear. But
begin
'Mother Athens, eye of Greece,'
or merely 'Mother Athens,' and the game is up, for the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: "Poor Mr. Brand!" said Charlotte, slowly, but with a simplicity which made it
evident to Felix that the young minister had not repeated to Miss Wentworth
the talk that had lately occurred between them.
"Ah, now, don't say 'poor' Mr. Brand! I don't pity Mr. Brand at all.
But I pity your father a little, and I don't want to displease him.
Therefore, you see, I want you to plead for me. You don't think me
very shabby, eh?"
"Shabby?" exclaimed Charlotte softly, for whom Felix represented
the most polished and iridescent qualities of mankind.
"I don't mean in my appearance," rejoined Felix, laughing;
for Charlotte was looking at his boots. "I mean in my conduct.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: who had no idea of it before they went, and who know also that Germany is
at heart an untamed, unchanged wild beast, never to be trusted again. We
must not, and shall not, boycott her in trade; but let us not go to sleep
at the switch! Just as busily as she is baking pottery opposite Coblenz,
labelled "made in St. Louis," "made in Kansas City," her "army of spies"
is at work here and everywhere to undermine those nations who have for
the moment delayed her plans for world dominion. I think the number of
Americans who know this has increased; but no American, wherever he
lives, need travel far from home to meet fellow Americans who sing
the song of slush about forgiving and forgetting.
Perhaps the man I heard talking in front of the bulletin board was one of
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