| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: matter is that the only themes which had fully retained their
significance in Wagner's memory at the period of the composition
of Night Falls On The Gods are those which are mere labels of
external features, such as the Dragon, the Fire, the Water and so
on. This particular theme of Sieglinda's is, in truth, of no
great musical merit: it might easily be the pet climax of a
popular sentimental ballad: in fact, the gushing effect which is
its sole valuable quality is so cheaply attained that it is
hardly going too far to call it the most trumpery phrase in the
entire tetralogy. Yet, since it undoubtedly does gush very
emphatically, Wagner chose, for convenience' sake, to work up
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: the wizard on the mat. But about his wife there was no mistake
conceivable, for she was the same girl that ran from him crying in
the wood. So he had sailed all this way, and might as well have
stayed in Molokai; and had left home and wife and all his friends
for no other cause but to escape his enemy, and the place he had
come to was that wizard's hunting ground, and the shore where he
walked invisible. It was at this period when he kept the most
close to the lagoon side, and as far as he dared, abode in the
cover of his hut.
The cause of the second period was talk he heard from his wife and
the chief islanders. Keola himself said little. He was never so
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: Thus he went on till the ship, whose departure too had been several
times postponed, was on the point of sailing. Then, when I call'd
to take my leave and receive the letters, his secretary, Dr. Bard,
came out to me and said the governor was extremely busy in writing,
but would be down at Newcastle before the ship, and there the letters
would be delivered to me.
Ralph, though married, and having one child, had determined to
accompany me in this voyage. It was thought he intended to establish
a correspondence, and obtain goods to sell on commission; but I
found afterwards, that, thro' some discontent with his wife's relations,
he purposed to leave her on their hands, and never return again.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
