Adrienne Rich — From Morning-Glory to Petersburg

(The World Book, 1928) "Organized knowledge in story and picture" confronts through dusty glass an eye grown dubious I can recall when knowledge was pure not contradictory, pleasurable as cutting out a paper doll You opened up a book and there it was: everything just as promised, from Kurdistan to Mormons, Gum Arabic to Kumquat, neither more nor less. Facts could be kept separate by a convention; that was what made childhood possible. Now knowledge finds me out; in all its risible untidiness it traces me to each address dragging in things I never thought about I don't invite what facts can be held at arm's length; a family of jeering irresponsibles always comes along gypsy-style and there you have them all forever on your hands. It never pays If I could still extrapolate the morning-glory on the gate from Petersburg in history--but it's too late