Worms of Death and Life in Section Six of H.D.'s "The Walls Do Not Fall"

In section six of "The Walls Do Not Fall," H.D. employs the worm as a symbol for human persistence: "In me (the worm) clearly / is no righteous, but this- // persistence." The section takes on a narrative flow as it describes the life of a worm; it escapes predators, explores a leaf, and eats leaf and wheat. H.D. shows the reader this tiny drama, which is used to advance significant claims about the power of poetry and reflection in the face of human activity.

First, she conveys the worm's insult to the reader (or at least human beings in general); the worm points out our inability to understand such miniscule affairs:

unintimidated by multiplicity
of magnified beauty,

such as your gorgon-great
dull eye can not focus

nor compass

Humans have "gorgon-great" and "dull" eyes that cannot comprehend the minutiae of the worm's world. H.D. offers a challenge to the reader's perspective. This is an example of Sarah H. S. Graham's argument that H.D. "is at war with her audience" (found in the journal Texas Studies in Literature and Language 44.2). Graham's point, however, isn't merely to suggest that H.D. is antogonistic, but that she argues with the human self.

In this way, H.D. seeks other perspectives from which to consider the potential for human understanding. The comparison of small and large in this section allows H.D. to question the epistemological tools at our disposal. The vividness of this section and the fact that the poet can assume the worm's viewpoint suggests that we can overcome the challenge of our size in order to understand things outside the usual scope of our perspective. In other words, the evidence provided by this section and the poem as a whole reveals our capacity for understanding.

Significantly, however, it is also evident that this sort of success is only possible through poetry. Metaphor, as a poetic and linguistic manuever of the mind, opens up the possibility for this type of seeing. The importance of poetry and language as a record of human experience and capability is emphasized throughout the poem (for example in sections 8-11).

The intruiging move in this section is H.D.'s transition from outward action and inward revelation. The section ends with an end to the worm's adventures:

I am yet unrepentant,

for I know how the Lord God
is about to manifest, when I,

the industrious worm,
spin my own shroud.

The shroud usually indicates death, of course, but the juxtaposition of industriousness (and escape and exploration) throughout the section is chillingly terminated by the specter of death and stillness indicated by the shroud. How does one read the repeated emphasis on persistence in light of this ending? First, we must remember that a "shroud" for a worm might indicate a cocoon created during the pupa stage of an insect. That is, the shroud might indicate transformation more than death. Second, the image of a cocoon is useful in looking at the succeeding sections of the poem in which H.D. contemplates contemplation. She considers how one shuts one's self off from human experience in order to formulate and express the meaning of that experience. I hope to follow her investigations (and post on them) as I read the rest of the poem.