| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: "Am I," said Berry, "am I to understand in cold blood that,
reckoning three miles to the league, some four leagues lie
directly between me and the muffins?"
"You are," said I.
"To think that my wife is a bag," he said wearily.
It was an autumn afternoon in the county of Devon. There were we
staying at a retired farmhouse, fleeting the time carelessly,
simply, healthily. Sickened by forty-eight hours of continuous
rain, we had fastened greedily upon the chance which a glorious
October day at length offered, and had set out, complete with
sandwiches, for one of the longer walks. Daphne constituted
The Brother of Daphne |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: question; the more I try, the worse I seem to make it. It grieves
me to the heart to see it in its little storms of sorrow and
passion. I wanted to let it go, but she wouldn't hear of it. That
seemed cruel and not like her; and yet she may be right. It might
be lonelier than ever; for since I cannot find another one, how
could it?
Five Months Later
It is not a kangaroo. No, for it supports itself by holding to
her finger, and thus goes a few steps on its hind legs, and then
falls down. It is probably some kind of a bear; and yet it has
no tail--as yet--and no fur, except on its head. It still keeps
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: In intimate talk (with such as you) and shrink . . .
'One feels so petty!--One feels such--emptiness!--'
You mimic horror, let fall your lifted hand,
And smile at me; with brooding tenderness . . .
Alone on darkened waters I fall and rise;
Slow waves above me break, faint waves of cries.
'And then these colors . . . but who would dare describe them?
This faint rose-coral pink . . this green--pistachio?--
So insubstantial! Like the dim ghostly things
Two lovers find in love's still-twilight chambers . . .
Old peacock-fans, and fragrant silks, and rings . . .
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