Poem number 890507

Article View: bit.listserv.test

Article #187

#187

From: Bialik Poetry Server
Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1992 14:00

18 lines
1216 bytes

Inert Perfection
Edna St. Vincent Millay


"Inert Perfection, let me chip your shell.
You cannot break it through with that soft beak.
What if you broke it never, and it befell
You should not issue thence, should never speak?"

Perfection in the egg, a fluid thing,
Grows solid in due course, and there exists;
Knowing no urge to struggle forth and sing;
Complete, though shell-bound.  But the mind insists

It shall be hatched ... to this ulterior end:
That it be bound by Function, that it be
Less than Perfection, having to expend
Some force on a nostalgia to be free.

Technical Details

Message-ID: <TEST%92090210414544@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!auvm!BRANDEIS.BITNET!BIALIK

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!auvm!BRANDEIS.BITNET!BIALIK
Message-ID: <TEST%92090210414544@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.test
Date:         Wed, 2 Sep 1992 10:00:00 EDT
Sender:       TESTing list for NETNEWS <TEST@PSUVM.BITNET>
Comments:     No poem for today.  This is a substitute, chosen at random.
Comments:     Warning -- original Sender: tag was SBRHYM-L@SBCCVM
From:         Bialik Poetry Server <BIALIK@BRANDEIS.BITNET>
Subject:      Poem number 890507
Comments: To: Multiple recipients of list SBRHYM-L <SBRHYM-L@SBCCVM.BITNET>
Lines: 18