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Style Study: William Faulkner
He could not
hear either: the galloping mare was almost upon him before
he heard her, and even then he held his course, as if the
very urgency of his wild grief and need must in a moment
more find him wings, waiting until the ultimate instant
to hurl himself aside and into the weed-choked roadside
ditch as the horse thundered past and on, for an instant
in the furious silhouette against the stars, the tranquil
early summer night sky which, even before the shape of the
horse and rider vanished, strained abruptly and violently
upward: a long, swirling roar incredible and soundless,
blotting the stars, and he springing up and into the road
again, running again, knowing it was too late yet still
running even after he heard the shot and, an instant later,
two shots, pausing now without knowing he had ceased to
run, crying "Pap! Pap!," running again before he knew he
had begun to run, stumbling, tripping over something and
scrabbling up again without ceasing to run, looking backward
over his shoulder at the glare as he got up, running on
among the invisible trees, panting, sobbing, "Father!
Father!"
--William
Faulkner from "Barn Burning" as reprinted in Edgar
V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacob's Literature: An Introduction
to Reading and Writing, 6th edition (Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001): pages 190-201.
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