No More Learning

For alas,
he had crowded the city so full
that men could not grasp beauty,
beauty was over them,
through them, about them,
no crevice unpacked with the honey,
rare, measureless.

So he built a new city,
ah can we believe, not ironically
but for new splendour
constructed new people
to lift through slow growth
to a beauty unrivalled yet--
and created new cells,
hideous first, hideous now--
spread larve across them,
not honey but seething life.

And in these dark cells,
packed street after street,
souls live, hideous yet--
O disfigured, defaced,
with no trace of the beauty
men once held so light.

Can we think a few old cells
were left--we are left--
grains of honey,
old dust of stray pollen
dull on our torn wings,
we are left to recall the old streets?

Is our task the less sweet
that the larve still sleep in their cells?
Or crawl out to attack our frail strength:
You are useless. We live.
We await great events.
We are spread through this earth.
We protect our strong race.
You are useless.
Your cell takes the place
of our young future strength.

Though they sleep or wake to torment
and wish to displace our old cells--
thin rare gold--
that their larve grow fat--
is our task the less sweet?

Though we wander about,
find no honey of flowers in this waste,
is our task the less sweet--
who recall the old splendour,
await the new beauty of cities?




_The city is peopled
with spirits, not ghosts, O my love:_

_Though they crowded between
and usurped the kiss of my mouth
their breath was your gift,
their beauty, your life.
_

[Illustration]

CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE,
LONDON.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Transcriber's Notes |
| |
| Page 10: torse _sic_ |
| Page 11: lower case amended to title case ("your shoulders |
| are level" amended to "Your shoulders are level"). |
| Page 14: tassle amended to tassel |
| Page 15: scavanger's amended to scavenger's |
| Page 16: chickory amended to chicory |
| Page 26: fragant amended to fragrant |
| Page 30: lower case amended to title case ("they say there |
| is no hope" amended to "They say there is no hope"). |
| Page 46: larve _sic_ |
| |
| "The City is peopled" did not appear with a title in the |
| original edition. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sea Garden, by Hilda Doolittle

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEA GARDEN ***

***** This file should be named 28665. txt or 28665. zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www. gutenberg. org/2/8/6/6/28665/

Produced by Meredith Bach and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www. pgdp. net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries. )


Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you! ) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.