| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: belief. The dead retain their taste for a fish diet, enter
into copartnery with living fishers, and haunt the reef and
the lagoon. The conclusion attributed to the nameless lady
of the legend would be reached to-day, under the like
circumstances, by ninety per cent of Polynesians: and here I
probably understate by one-tenth.
THE FEAST OF FAMINE
MARQUESAN MANNERS
I. THE PRIEST'S VIGIL
IN all the land of the tribe was neither fish nor fruit,
And the deepest pit of popoi stood empty to the foot. (1)
Ballads |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Poems by Oscar Wilde: With the hoarse murmur of the wintry seas,
And the tall stems were streaked with amber bright; -
I wandered through the wood in wild delight,
Some startled bird, with fluttering wings and fleet,
Made snow of all the blossoms; at my feet,
Like silver crowns, the pale narcissi lay,
And small birds sang on every twining spray.
O waving trees, O forest liberty!
Within your haunts at least a man is free,
And half forgets the weary world of strife:
The blood flows hotter, and a sense of life
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Thus the Love-Song was recorded,
Symbol and interpretation.
First a human figure standing,
Painted in the brightest scarlet;
`T Is the lover, the musician,
And the meaning is, "My painting
Makes me powerful over others."
Then the figure seated, singing,
Playing on a drum of magic,
And the interpretation, "Listen!
`T Is my voice you hear, my singing!"
|
