| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: shrugged his shoulders, muttered that I was mad or bewitched, and
followed doggedly in my tracks.
"We soon reached the kloof, which was about three hundred yards in
length and but sparsely wooded, and then the real fun began. There
might be a lion behind every bush--there certainly were four lions
somewhere; the delicate question was, where. I peeped and poked and
looked in every possible direction, with my heart in my mouth, and was
at last rewarded by catching a glimpse of something yellow moving behind
a bush. At the same moment, from another bush opposite me out burst one
of the cubs and galloped back towards the burnt pan. I whipped round
and let drive a snap shot that tipped him head over heels, breaking his
Long Odds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: DORCHESTER.--A corker! Artistic two-family house, all oak trim, parquet
floors, lovely gas log, big porches, colonial, HEATED ALL-WEATHER GARAGE, a
bargain at $11,250.
Dictation over, with its need of sitting and thinking instead of bustling
around and making a noise and really doing something, Babbitt sat creakily
back in his revolving desk-chair and beamed on Miss McGoun. He was conscious
of her as a girl, of black bobbed hair against demure cheeks. A longing which
was indistinguishable from loneliness enfeebled him. While she waited, tapping
a long, precise pencil-point on the desk-tablet, he half identified her with
the fairy girl of his dreams. He imagined their eyes meeting with terrifying
recognition; imagined touching her lips with frightened reverence and--She was
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: will be found translated in the late Henry Clarke Warren's _Buddhism
in Translation_ (Harvard Oriental Series). Mr. Warren was one
of the great pioneers of Buddhist studies in the Occident.
309. From St. Augustine's CONFESSIONS again. The col-location
of these two representatives of eastern and western asceticism,
as the culmination of this part of the poem, is not an accident.
V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID
In the first part of Part V three themes are employed:
the journey to Emmaus, the approach to the Chapel Perilous
(see Miss Weston's book), and the present decay of eastern Europe.
357. This is _Turdus aonalaschkae pallasii_, the hermit-thrush
The Waste Land |
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 My Antonia by Willa Cather: He never goes out of my life. I talk to him and consult
him all the time. The older I grow, the better I know him
and the more I understand him.'
She asked me whether I had learned to like big cities.
`I'd always be miserable in a city. I'd die of lonesomeness.
I like to be where I know every stack and tree, and where
all the ground is friendly. I want to live and die here.
Father Kelly says everybody's put into this world for something,
and I know what I've got to do. I'm going to see that
my little girl has a better chance than ever I had.
I'm going to take care of that girl, Jim.'
My Antonia |
