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"For a Breath I Tarry"
by Roger Zelazny

• Publishing Data • Preview • Background • Navigation Guide •
Publishing Data

Originally published in New Worlds, March 1966
Collected in Science Fiction, Stories and Contexts, ed. Heather Masri

Preview
Man has created Solcom, a powreful satellite with the ability to oversee the rebuilding of Earth. Solcom has created Frost who has taken up the study of Man as his hobby. Then Solcom's Alternate, Divcom, tries to assume command. Mordel, an agent of Divcom, agrees to share all knowledge of Man with Frost; If Frost cannot become a Man he will work for Divcom.
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Background

BulletThe title of the story comes from A Shropshire Lad 32, l. 5. the entire poem reads:

From far, from eve and morning/ And yon twelve-winded sky/ The stuff of life to knit me Blew hither: here am I.

Now--for a breath I tarry/ Nor yet disperse apart--/Take my hand quick and tell me,/What have you in your heart.

Speak now, and I will answer;/How shall I help you, say;/Ere to the wind's twelve quarters/I take my endless way.

 
BulletThe Crusher of Ores tells his tale of how he caused the death of the last Man in the same way that the Ancient Mariner tells the tale of how he killed the Albatross in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
 
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Navigation Guide
What would be the consequences if Divcom took over the dominion of Earth?
Why does solcom maintain silence when Frost tries to get orders?
Of what significance is the transmission to Frost from the South saying "'If it had not been ordered, I would not have bid you go?'" Who is the transmission from?
When Solcom and Frost argue about Frost's visit to the South, who is correct?
Frost leaves his statue of the old woman bent over his statue of the cube. Why?
Why does Mordel take Frost's painting? Where does he take it?
 
 
 
 
 
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