| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: Teasdale was born in St. Louis, Missouri, where she attended a school
that was founded by the grandfather of another great poet from St. Louis --
T. S. Eliot. She later associated herself more with New York City.
Her first book of poems was "Sonnets to Duse" (1907),
but "Helen of Troy" (1911) was the true launch of her career,
followed by "Rivers to the Sea" (1915), "Love Songs" (1917),
"Flame and Shadow" (1920) and more. Her final volume, "Strange Victory",
is considered by many to be predictive of her suicide in 1933.
----
From an anthology of verse by Jessie B. Rittenhouse (1913, 1917):
"Teasdale, Sara (Mrs. Ernst B. Filsinger). Born in St. Louis, Missouri,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: She answered: "Yes." And her heart seemed to stop beating.
At first she could not make out what mysterious change had come
over him, and why it was that in looking at him she seemed to be
looking at a stranger; then she perceived that his voice sounded
as it used to sound when he was talking to other people; and she
said to herself, with a sick shiver of understanding, that she
had become an "other person" to him.
There was a deathly pause; then she faltered out, not knowing
what she said: "Nick--you'll sit down?"
He said: "Thanks," but did not seem to have heard her, for he
continued to stand motionless, half the room between them. And
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: you do a fish which has been caught and fried and served up with
sauce?"
A poplar covered with hoar frost looked in the bluish darkness
like a giant wrapt in a shroud. It looked at me sullenly and
dejectedly, as though like me it realized its loneliness. I stood
a long while looking at it.
"My youth is thrown away for nothing, like a useless cigarette
end," I went on musing. "My parents died when I was a little
child; I was expelled from the high school, I was born of a noble
family, but I have received neither education nor breeding, and
I have no more knowledge than the humblest mechanic. I have no
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
