The Waste Land and Other Poems (12 page)
Read The Waste Land and Other Poems Online
Authors: T. S. Eliot
‘WHISPERSOF IMMORTALITY’
‘MR.ELIOT’S SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE’
DEDICATION
‘MR.ELIOT’S SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE’
1
(p. 55) Look, look, master ...
THE JEW OF MALTA:
From the play (act 4, scene 1) by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593).
(p. 55) Look, look, master ...
THE JEW OF MALTA:
From the play (act 4, scene 1) by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593).
13
(p. 55)
piaculative pence:
Collection money, which the pimply (‘pustular’) youth hope will expiate (piaculate) their sins.
(p. 55)
piaculative pence:
Collection money, which the pimply (‘pustular’) youth hope will expiate (piaculate) their sins.
15
(p. 56)
Along the garden-wall ...
/
The staminate and pistillate:
These lines describe the process of pollination.
‘SWEENEYAMONG THE NIGHTINGALES’(p. 56)
Along the garden-wall ...
/
The staminate and pistillate:
These lines describe the process of pollination.
2
(p. 57) w
µoi, πeπ
ηlµαi
Kαiρíα
ν
πληγnv
eσω
:
‘Alas, I am struck deep with a mortal blow,’ the words of Agamemnon as he is slain by his wife, Clytemnestra, in
Agamemnon,
by Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.).
(p. 57) w
µoi, πeπ
ηlµαi
Kαiρíα
ν
πληγnv
eσω
:
‘Alas, I am struck deep with a mortal blow,’ the words of Agamemnon as he is slain by his wife, Clytemnestra, in
Agamemnon,
by Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.).
4
(p. 57)
River Plate:
In Spanish this is the Río de la Plata, a broad inlet of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Uruguay and Argentina.
(p. 57)
River Plate:
In Spanish this is the Río de la Plata, a broad inlet of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Uruguay and Argentina.
5
(p. 57)
Gloomy Orion:
Eliot took the phrase from Christopher Marlowe’s
Dido, Queen of Carthage
(1594; act 1, scene 2). The constellation of Orion includes Sirius, the Dog Star.
(p. 57)
Gloomy Orion:
Eliot took the phrase from Christopher Marlowe’s
Dido, Queen of Carthage
(1594; act 1, scene 2). The constellation of Orion includes Sirius, the Dog Star.
6
(p. 57)
murderous paws:
This image is also taken from
Dido
(see note just above; act 2, scene 1), in a description of the Myrmidons, a war-like race.
(p. 57)
murderous paws:
This image is also taken from
Dido
(see note just above; act 2, scene 1), in a description of the Myrmidons, a war-like race.
7
(p. 58)
Convent of the Sacred Heart:
Convent of nuns, the Roman Catholic congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary.
The Waste Land(p. 58)
Convent of the Sacred Heart:
Convent of nuns, the Roman Catholic congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary.
DEDICATION
1
(p. 61)
‘Nam Sibyllam
... aπoθανεiν θeλω’: ‘I saw with my own eyes the Sibyl hanging in a cage, and when the boys cried at her, “Sybil, what do you want?” she responded, “I wish I were dead.”’ From the
Satyricon,
by Petronius (first century A.D.). Sybils were women believed to have prophetic powers; they were gatekeepers to the underworld.
(p. 61)
‘Nam Sibyllam
... aπoθανεiν θeλω’: ‘I saw with my own eyes the Sibyl hanging in a cage, and when the boys cried at her, “Sybil, what do you want?” she responded, “I wish I were dead.”’ From the
Satyricon,
by Petronius (first century A.D.). Sybils were women believed to have prophetic powers; they were gatekeepers to the underworld.
2
(p. 61) il miglior fabbro: ‘The better craftsman,’ from Dante’s
Purga
torio 34.117. American poet and critic Ezra Pound (1885-1972) was a friend and supporter of Eliot’s, and a fellow American expatriate in Europe. Eliot appreciated greatly his editing of the poem’s manuscript.
‘I.THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD’(p. 61) il miglior fabbro: ‘The better craftsman,’ from Dante’s
Purga
torio 34.117. American poet and critic Ezra Pound (1885-1972) was a friend and supporter of Eliot’s, and a fellow American expatriate in Europe. Eliot appreciated greatly his editing of the poem’s manuscript.
2
(p. 65)
April is the cruellest month:
Compare the opening lines of the General Prologue in
The Canterbury Tales,
by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400):
(p. 65)
April is the cruellest month:
Compare the opening lines of the General Prologue in
The Canterbury Tales,
by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400):
When that April, with his showers swoot [sweet],
The drought of March hath pierced to the root,
And bathed every vein in such licour,
Of which virtue engender’d is the flower;
When Zephyrus eke with his swoote breath
Inspired hath in every holt [forest] and heath
The tender croppes [boughs] and the younge sun
Hath in the Ram his halfe course y-run,
And smalle fowles make melody ...’
The drought of March hath pierced to the root,
And bathed every vein in such licour,
Of which virtue engender’d is the flower;
When Zephyrus eke with his swoote breath
Inspired hath in every holt [forest] and heath
The tender croppes [boughs] and the younge sun
Hath in the Ram his halfe course y-run,
And smalle fowles make melody ...’
5
(p. 65)
Bin gar ...
echt deutsch: The German line translates as ‘I am not Russian at all; I come from Lithuania, a real German.’
(p. 65)
Bin gar ...
echt deutsch: The German line translates as ‘I am not Russian at all; I come from Lithuania, a real German.’
6
(p. 65)
Son of man:
See Eliot’s note to line 20. The line from Ezekiel reads: ‘And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee’ (KJV).
(p. 65)
Son of man:
See Eliot’s note to line 20. The line from Ezekiel reads: ‘And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee’ (KJV).
7
(p. 65)
the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief
See Eliot’s note to line 23. The line from Ecclesiastes reads: ‘Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets’ (KJV).
(p. 65)
the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief
See Eliot’s note to line 23. The line from Ecclesiastes reads: ‘Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets’ (KJV).
8
(p. 66) Frisch weht der Wind / ... Wo weilist du?: The German lines translate as ‘Fresh blows the wind toward home. My Irish child, where are you waiting?‘ See Eliot’s note to line 31.
(p. 66) Frisch weht der Wind / ... Wo weilist du?: The German lines translate as ‘Fresh blows the wind toward home. My Irish child, where are you waiting?‘ See Eliot’s note to line 31.
9
(p. 66) Oed’ und leer das Meer: The German line translates as ‘Empty and waste is the sea.’ See Eliot’s note to line 42.
(p. 66) Oed’ und leer das Meer: The German line translates as ‘Empty and waste is the sea.’ See Eliot’s note to line 42.
11
(p. 66)
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Line 3 of the second part of Ariel’s song in Shakespeare’s
Tempest
(act 1, scene 2).
(p. 66)
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Line 3 of the second part of Ariel’s song in Shakespeare’s
Tempest
(act 1, scene 2).
12
(p. 66)
Unreal City:
See Eliot’s note to line 60. The lines of French poet Charles Baudelaire translate as: ‘Swarming city, city full of dreams, / where the specter in broad daylight accosts the passerby.’
(p. 66)
Unreal City:
See Eliot’s note to line 60. The lines of French poet Charles Baudelaire translate as: ‘Swarming city, city full of dreams, / where the specter in broad daylight accosts the passerby.’
13
(p. 67)
I had not thought death had undone so many:
See Eliot’s note to line 63. Dante, just outside the gate of hell, has seen ‘the wretched souls of those who lived without disgrace and without praise.’
(p. 67)
I had not thought death had undone so many:
See Eliot’s note to line 63. Dante, just outside the gate of hell, has seen ‘the wretched souls of those who lived without disgrace and without praise.’
14
(p. 67)
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled:
See Eliot’s note to line 64. The lines from
Inferno
translate as: ‘Here, as far as I could tell by listening, there was no lamentation except sighs which caused the eternal air to tremble.’
(p. 67)
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled:
See Eliot’s note to line 64. The lines from
Inferno
translate as: ‘Here, as far as I could tell by listening, there was no lamentation except sighs which caused the eternal air to tremble.’
16
(p. 67)
at Mylae:
Sicilian port, site of the battle of Mylae (260 B.C.), in which Rome gained dominance over Carthage in Sicilian waters.
(p. 67)
at Mylae:
Sicilian port, site of the battle of Mylae (260 B.C.), in which Rome gained dominance over Carthage in Sicilian waters.
18
(p. 67)
‘hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!’:
The French translates as ‘Hypocrite reader!—my likeness,—my brother!’ See Eliot’s note to line 76.
‘II. A GAME OF CHESS’(p. 67)
‘hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!’:
The French translates as ‘Hypocrite reader!—my likeness,—my brother!’ See Eliot’s note to line 76.
2
(p. 68)
The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne:
See Eliot’s note to line 77. In Shakespeare’s play, Enobarbus describes Cleopatra:
(p. 68)
The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne:
See Eliot’s note to line 77. In Shakespeare’s play, Enobarbus describes Cleopatra:
The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,
Burn’d on the water; the poop was beaten gold,
Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that
The winds were love-sick with them, the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar’d all description; she did lie
In her pavilion,—cloth-of -gold of tissue,—
O‘er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature; on each side her
Stood pretty-dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour’d fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.
Burn’d on the water; the poop was beaten gold,
Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that
The winds were love-sick with them, the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar’d all description; she did lie
In her pavilion,—cloth-of -gold of tissue,—
O‘er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature; on each side her
Stood pretty-dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour’d fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.
3
(p. 68)
laquearia:
Paneled ceiling. See Eliot’s note to line 92. The lines from Virgil’s
Aeneid
translate as: ‘Blazing torches hang from the gold-paneled ceiling, and torches conquer the night with flames.’
(p. 68)
laquearia:
Paneled ceiling. See Eliot’s note to line 92. The lines from Virgil’s
Aeneid
translate as: ‘Blazing torches hang from the gold-paneled ceiling, and torches conquer the night with flames.’
4
(p. 68)
sylvan scene:
See Eliot’s note to line 98. The lines from Paradise Lost read:
(p. 68)
sylvan scene:
See Eliot’s note to line 98. The lines from Paradise Lost read:
... and overhead upgrew
Insuperable height of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A sylvan scene, and, as the ranks ascend,
Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops
The verdurous wall of Paradise upsprung.
Insuperable height of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A sylvan scene, and, as the ranks ascend,
Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops
The verdurous wall of Paradise upsprung.
5
(p. 68)
Philomel:
Philomela, a character in Ovid’s
Metamorphoses,
is raped by her brother-in-law and has her tongue cut out so that she cannot tell her story, but she weaves a tapestry that condemns her assailant. See Eliot’s note to line 99.
(p. 68)
Philomel:
Philomela, a character in Ovid’s
Metamorphoses,
is raped by her brother-in-law and has her tongue cut out so that she cannot tell her story, but she weaves a tapestry that condemns her assailant. See Eliot’s note to line 99.
7
(p. 69) rats’ alley: Slang for the trenches of World War I. See Eliot’s note to line 115.
(p. 69) rats’ alley: Slang for the trenches of World War I. See Eliot’s note to line 115.
8
(p. 69)
the wind under the door:
See Eliot’s note to line 118. The line is from John Webster’s
The Devil’s Lawcase
(1623; act 3, scene 2).
(p. 69)
the wind under the door:
See Eliot’s note to line 118. The line is from John Webster’s
The Devil’s Lawcase
(1623; act 3, scene 2).
11
(p. 70) Pressirig ... door: See Eliot’s note to line 138.
‘III. THE FIRE SERMON’(p. 70) Pressirig ... door: See Eliot’s note to line 138.
1
(p. 72) The Fire Sermon: The reference is to the Buddha’s Fire Sermon, in which he says that the body and its sensations as well as the mind and its ideas are aflame with passion and emotion, and thus should be ignored by those seeking enlightenment.
(p. 72) The Fire Sermon: The reference is to the Buddha’s Fire Sermon, in which he says that the body and its sensations as well as the mind and its ideas are aflame with passion and emotion, and thus should be ignored by those seeking enlightenment.
3
(p. 72)
By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept ... :
This line echoes the lament of the exiled Jews in Psalm 137: ‘By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion’ (KJV). Lac Léman is Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland, where Eliot wrote much of this poem while recuperating from his nervous breakdown.
(p. 72)
By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept ... :
This line echoes the lament of the exiled Jews in Psalm 137: ‘By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion’ (KJV). Lac Léman is Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland, where Eliot wrote much of this poem while recuperating from his nervous breakdown.
5
(p. 72)
at my back from time to time I hear:
See Eliot’s note to line 196. Marvell wrote: ‘But at my back I always hear / Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.’
(p. 72)
at my back from time to time I hear:
See Eliot’s note to line 196. Marvell wrote: ‘But at my back I always hear / Time’s winged chariot hurrying near.’
7
(p. 72)
Mrs. Porter:
The line is from a bawdy World War I soldiers’ song. See Eliot’s note to line 199.
(p. 72)
Mrs. Porter:
The line is from a bawdy World War I soldiers’ song. See Eliot’s note to line 199.
8
(p. 72) Et O ces voix d’enfants, chantant dans la coupole!: ‘And O those children’s voices singing in the dome!’ See Eliot’s note to line 202. French lyric poet Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) was a leading Symbolist.
(p. 72) Et O ces voix d’enfants, chantant dans la coupole!: ‘And O those children’s voices singing in the dome!’ See Eliot’s note to line 202. French lyric poet Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) was a leading Symbolist.
12
(p. 73)
Cannon Street Hotel:
The hotel was at London’s Cannon Street Station, the main terminus for business travelers to and from continental Europe.
(p. 73)
Cannon Street Hotel:
The hotel was at London’s Cannon Street Station, the main terminus for business travelers to and from continental Europe.
14
(p. 73)
Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives:
The Greek mythic character Tiresias experienced life as both a woman and a man, in order to adjudicate the question of which sex was more sexually fulfilled, and ultimately decided that women were. See Eliot’s note to line 218, which conveys an important insight about the poem’s narrative perspective: All the characters in the poem are, in a sense, united, so that what seems like a dazzling multiplicity of viewpoints may actually be regarded as a single, coherent vision. The lines were translated by John Dryden and Alexander Pope as:
(p. 73)
Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives:
The Greek mythic character Tiresias experienced life as both a woman and a man, in order to adjudicate the question of which sex was more sexually fulfilled, and ultimately decided that women were. See Eliot’s note to line 218, which conveys an important insight about the poem’s narrative perspective: All the characters in the poem are, in a sense, united, so that what seems like a dazzling multiplicity of viewpoints may actually be regarded as a single, coherent vision. The lines were translated by John Dryden and Alexander Pope as:
‘Twas now, while these transactions past on Earth,
And Bacchus thus procur’d a second birth,
When Jove, dispos’d to lay aside the weight
Of publick empire and the cares of state,
As to his queen in nectar bowls he quaff’d,
‘In troth,’ says he, and as he spoke he laugh‘d,
‘The sense of pleasure in the male is far
More dull and dead, than what you females share.’
juno the truth of what was said deny’d;
Tiresias therefore must the cause decide,
For he the pleasure of each sex had try’d
It happen’d once, within a shady wood,
Two twisted snakes he in conjunction view‘d,
When with his staff their slimy folds he broke,
And lost his manhood at the fatal stroke.
But, after seven revolving years, he view’d
The self-same serpents in the self-same wood:
‘And if‘says he, ‘such virtue in you lye,
That he who dares your slimy folds untie
Must change his kind, a second stroke I’ll try.’
Again he struck the snakes, and stood again
New-sex’d, and strait recover’d into man.
Him therefore both the deities create
The sov‘raign umpire, in their grand debate;
And he declar’d for Jove: when Juno fir’d,
More than so trivial an affair requir‘d,
Depriv’d him, in her fury, of his sight,
And left him groping round in sudden night.
But Jove (for so it is in Heav’n decreed,
That no one God repeal another’s deed)
Irradiates all his soul with inward light,
And with the prophet’s art relieves the want of sight.
And Bacchus thus procur’d a second birth,
When Jove, dispos’d to lay aside the weight
Of publick empire and the cares of state,
As to his queen in nectar bowls he quaff’d,
‘In troth,’ says he, and as he spoke he laugh‘d,
‘The sense of pleasure in the male is far
More dull and dead, than what you females share.’
juno the truth of what was said deny’d;
Tiresias therefore must the cause decide,
For he the pleasure of each sex had try’d
It happen’d once, within a shady wood,
Two twisted snakes he in conjunction view‘d,
When with his staff their slimy folds he broke,
And lost his manhood at the fatal stroke.
But, after seven revolving years, he view’d
The self-same serpents in the self-same wood:
‘And if‘says he, ‘such virtue in you lye,
That he who dares your slimy folds untie
Must change his kind, a second stroke I’ll try.’
Again he struck the snakes, and stood again
New-sex’d, and strait recover’d into man.
Him therefore both the deities create
The sov‘raign umpire, in their grand debate;
And he declar’d for Jove: when Juno fir’d,
More than so trivial an affair requir‘d,
Depriv’d him, in her fury, of his sight,
And left him groping round in sudden night.
But Jove (for so it is in Heav’n decreed,
That no one God repeal another’s deed)
Irradiates all his soul with inward light,
And with the prophet’s art relieves the want of sight.
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