No More Learning

DECTORA.

No, not there,
But in some island where the life of the world
Leaps upward, as if all the streams o' the world
Had run into one fountain.

AIBRIC.

Speak to him.
He knows that he is taking you to death;
Speak--he will not deny it.

DECTORA.

Is that true?

FORGAEL.

I do not know for certain, but I know
That I have the best of pilots.

AIBRIC.

Shadows, illusions,
That the shape-changers, the ever-laughing ones,
The immortal mockers have cast into his mind,
Or called before his eyes.

DECTORA.

O carry me
To some sure country, some familiar place.
Have we not everything that life can give
In having one another?

FORGAEL.
How could I rest
If I refused the messengers and pilots
With all those sights and all that crying out?

DECTORA.

But I will cover up your eyes and ears,
That you may never hear the cry of the birds,
Or look upon them.

FORGAEL.

Were they but lowlier
I'd do your will, but they are too high--too high.

DECTORA.

Being too high, their heady prophecies
But harry us with hopes that come to nothing,
Because we are not proud, imperishable,
Alone and winged.

FORGAEL.

Our love shall be like theirs
When we have put their changeless image on.

DECTORA.

I am a woman, I die at every breath.

AIBRIC.

Let the birds scatter for the tree is broken.
And there's no help in words. [_To the SAILORS. _] To the other ship,
And I will follow you and cut the rope
When I have said farewell to this man here,
For neither I nor any living man
Will look upon his face again.