| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde: To no less eager eyes; often indeed
In the great epic of Polymnia's scroll I love to read
How Asia sent her myriad hosts to war
Against a little town, and panoplied
In gilded mail with jewelled scimitar,
White-shielded, purple-crested, rode the Mede
Between the waving poplars and the sea
Which men call Artemisium, till he saw Thermopylae
Its steep ravine spanned by a narrow wall,
And on the nearer side a little brood
Of careless lions holding festival!
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: high-pitched roof of grass.
He stepped upon the jetty. He was clad simply in flapping
pyjamas of cretonne pattern (enormous flowers with yellow petals
on a disagreeable blue ground) and a thin cotton singlet with
short sleeves. His arms, bare to the elbow, were crossed on his
chest. His black hair looked as if it had not been cut for a
very long time and a curly wisp of it strayed across his
forehead. I had heard of him at Singapore; I had heard of him on
board; I had heard of him early in the morning and late at night;
I had heard of him at tiffin and at dinner; I had heard of him in
a place called Pulo Laut from a half-caste gentleman there, who
Some Reminiscences |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: were going to pull down lightning. `Law, law!' she shrieked after us.
`Law for knock my Ambrosch down!'
`I never like you no more, Jake and Jim Burden,' Antonia panted.
`No friends any more!'
Jake stopped and turned his horse for a second.
`Well, you're a damned ungrateful lot, the whole pack of you,'
he shouted back. `I guess the Burdens can get along without you.
You've been a sight of trouble to them, anyhow!'
We rode away, feeling so outraged that the fine morning was spoiled for us.
I hadn't a word to say, and poor Jake was white as paper and trembling
all over. It made him sick to get so angry.
My Antonia |
