| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: if it could speak?
"Quit yer kiddin'," said the boy. "Wot paper yer
want? I got no time to waste. It's Mag's birthday,
and I want thirty cents to git her a present."
Here was no interpreter of the city's mouthpiece.
I bought a paper, and consigned its undeclared
treaties, its premeditated murders and unfought bat-
tles to an ash can.
Again I repaired to the park and sat in the moon
shade. I thought and thought, and wondered why
none could tell me what I asked for.
The Voice of the City |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: Alexis; no, nor would Iollas yield,
Should gifts decide the day. Alack! alack!
What misery have I brought upon my head!-
Loosed on the flowers Siroces to my bane,
And the wild boar upon my crystal springs!
Whom do you fly, infatuate? gods ere now,
And Dardan Paris, have made the woods their home.
Let Pallas keep the towers her hand hath built,
Us before all things let the woods delight.
The grim-eyed lioness pursues the wolf,
The wolf the she-goat, the she-goat herself
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave by Frederick Douglass: in combating prejudice, in gaining proselytes, in agi-
tating the public mind, has far surpassed the most
sanguine expectations that were raised at the com-
mencement of his brilliant career. He has borne him-
self with gentleness and meekness, yet with true
manliness of character. As a public speaker, he excels
in pathos, wit, comparison, imitation, strength of
reasoning, and fluency of language. There is in him
that union of head and heart, which is indispensable
to an enlightenment of the heads and a winning of
the hearts of others. May his strength continue to
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave |
