THE

WASTE LAND

By T. S. ELIOT

Winner of The Dial's 1922 Award.

This prize of two thousand dollars is given annually to a young American writer in recognition of his service to letters.

THE WASTE LAND

By

T. S. Eliot

(Winner of the Dial's 1922 Award)

Burton Rascoe in the "New York Tribune," characterizes THE WASTE LAND as, "A thing of bitterness and beauty, which is a crystallization or a synthesis of all the poems Mr. Eliot has hitherto written." He goes still further, when he says, THE WASTE LAND, "Is, perhaps, the finest poem of this generation; at all events it is the most significant in that it gives voice to the universal despair or resig- nation arising from the spiritual and economic consequences of the war, the cross purposes of modern civilization, the cul-de-sac into which both science and philosophy seem to have got themselves and the break-down of all great directive purposes which give zest and joy to the business of living. It is an erudite despair: Mr. Eliot stems his poem from a recent anthro- pological study of primitive beliefs, as embodied in the Grail legend and other flaming quests which quickened men in other times; he quotes, or misquotes, lines from the "Satyricon of Petronius," "Tristan und Isolde," the sacred books of the Hindus, Dante, Baudelaire, Verlaine, nursery rhymes, the Old Testament and modern jazz songs. His method is highly elliptical, based on the curious formula of Tris- tan Corbiere, wherein reverential and blasphemous ideas are juxtaposed in amazing antitheses, and there are min- gled all the shining verbal toys, im- pressions and catch lines of a poet who has read voraciously and who pos- sesses an insatiable curiosity about life. It is analysis and realism, psychology

and criticism, anguish, bitterness and

disillusion, with passages of great

lyrical beauty."

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from Duke University Libraries

http://archive.org/details/wasteland01elio

THE WASTE LAND

BY

T. S. ELIOT

" NAM Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: 2£/SiAXa tL 0eXcts; respondebat ilia: &iro6aveiv 0e\o)."

NEW YORK

BONI AND LIVERIGHT

1922

Of the one thousand copies printed of The Waste Land this volume is

number.^. .(..O^

Sf Mis

THE WASTE LAND

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain. Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers. Summer surprised us, coming over the

Starnbergersee With a shower of rain; we stopped in the

colonnade,

And went on in sunlight, into the Hof-

garten, 10

H 9 3

THE WASTE LAND

And drank coffee, and talked for an hour. Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen,

echt deutsch. And when we were children, staying at the

archduke's, My cousin's, he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened. He said, Marie, Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. In the mountains, there you feel free. I read, much of the night, and go south

in the winter.

What are the roots that clutch, what

branches grow

Out of this stony rubbish? Son of

man, 20

Cio.j

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

You cannot say, or guess, for you know

only A heap of broken images, where the sun

beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the

cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only There is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red

rock), And I will show you something different

from either Your shadow at morning striding behind

you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet

you;

THE WASTE LAND

I will show you fear in a handful of

dust.

30

Frisch weht der Wind Der Heimai zu, Mein Iriscb Kind, Wo weilest du ?

"You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;

"They called me the hyacinth girl."

— Yet when we came back, late, from the

Hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I

could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, 40 Looking into the heart of light, the

silence.

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

OcT und leer das Meer.

Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,

Had a bad cold, nevertheless

Is known to be the wisest woman in

Europe, With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said

she, Is your card, the drowned Phoenician

Sailor, (Those are pearls that were his eyes.

Look !)

Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,

The lady of situations. so

Here is the man with three staves, and

here the Wheel,

C-I3 3

THE WASTE LAND

And here is the one-eyed merchant, and

this card, Which is blank, is something he carries on

his back, Which I am forbidden to see. I do not

find The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. I see crowds of people, walking round in

a ring. Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equi-

tone, Tell her I bring the horoscope myself: One must be so careful these days.

Unreal City, 60

Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, Ci4 3

THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so

many, I had not thought death had undone so

many. Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. Flowed up the hill and down King William

Street, To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the

hours With a dead sound on the final stroke of

nine. There I saw one I knew, and stopped him,

crying: "Stetson!

"You who were with me in the ships at

Mylae! 7o

C 15 3

THE WASTE LAND

"That corpse you planted last year in

your garden, "Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom

this year? "Or has the sudden frost disturbed its

bed? "Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend

to men, "Or with his nails he'll dig it up again! "You! hypocrite lecteur! — mon sem-

blable, — mon frere!"

Ci6 3

II. A GAME OF CHESS

THE Chair she sat in, like a bur- nished throne, Glowed on the marble, where the glass Held up by standards wrought with

fruited vines From which a golden Cupidon peeped

OUt 80

(Another hid his eyes behind his wing)

Doubled the flames of sevenbranched

candelabra

Reflecting light upon the table as

The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,

From satin cases poured in rich profusion; li7l

THE WASTE LAND

In vials of ivory and coloured glass Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic

perfumes, Unguent, powdered, or liquid — troubled,

confused And drowned the sense in odours; stirred

by the air That freshened from the window, these

ascended 90

In fattening the prolonged candle-flames, Flung their smoke into the laquearia, Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling. Huge sea-wood fed with copper Burned green and orange, framed by the

coloured stone,

In which sad light a carved dolphin swam. C i8 3

A GAME OF CHESS

Above the antique mantel was displayed

As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene

The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king

So rudely forced; yet there the nightin- gale IOO

Filled all the desert with inviolable voice And still she cried, and still the world

pursues, "Jug Jug" to dirty ears. And other withered stumps of time Were told upon the walls; staring forms Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room

enclosed.

Footsteps shuffled on the stair. C19J

THE WASTE LAND

Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair

Spread out in fiery points

Glowed into words, then would be sav- agely Still. no

"My nerves are bad tonight. Yes, bad. Stay with me.

" Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.

"What are you thinking of? What think- ing? What?

"I never know what you are thinking. Think."

I think we are in rats' alley

Where the dead men lost their bones.

C2on

A GAME OF CHESS

"What is that noise ?"

The wind under the door.

"What is that noise now? What is the

wind doing?''

Nothing again nothing. 120

"Do

"You know nothing? Do you see nothing?

Do you remember

"Nothing?"

I remember

Those are pearls that were his eyes.

"Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing

in your head?"

But

OOOO that Shakespeherian Rag —

It's so elegant

So intelligent 130

C213

THE WASTE LAND

"What shall I do now? What shall

I do?" "I shall rush out as I am, and walk the

street "With my hair down, so. What shall we

do tomorrow? "What shall we ever do?"

The hot w ter at ten. And if it rains, a closed car at four. And we shall play a game of chess, Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a

knock upon the door.

When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said —

C22 3

A GAME OF CHESS

I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself, 140

Hurry up please its time

Now Albert's coming back, make your- self a bit smart.

He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you

To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.

You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set,

He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at you.

And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert,

He's been in the army four years, he

wants a good time, 1:23:1

THE WASTE LAND

And if you dont give it him, there's

others will, I said. Oh is there, she said. Something o' that,

I said. iso

Then I'll know who to thank, she said,

and give me a straight look. Hurry up please its time If you dont like it you can get on with it,

I said, Others can pick and choose if you can't. But if Albert makes off, it wont be for

lack of telling. You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look

so antique.

(And her only thirty-one.)

I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face, C243

A GAMEOF CHESS

It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she

said. (She's had five already, and nearly died

of young George.) 160

The chemist said it would be alright, but

I've never been the same. You are a proper fool, I said. Well, if Albert wont leave you alone, there

it is, I said, What you get married for if you dont

want children? Hurry up please its time Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they

had a hot gammon,

And they asked me in to dinner, to get

the beauty of it hot — C253

the waste land

Hurry up please its time Hurry up please its time Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight

May. Goonight. 170

Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight. Good night, ladies, good night, sweet

ladies, good night, good night.

C263

III. THE FIRE SERMON

THE river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf

Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind

Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.

Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

The river bears no empty bottles, sand- wich papers,

Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigar- ette ends

Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.

THE WASTE LAND

And their friends, the loitering heirs of city- directors ; 180

Departed, have left no addresses.

By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept . . .

Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,

Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not

loud or long. But at my back in a cold blast I hear The rattle of the bones, and chuckle

spread from ear to ear.

A rat crept softly through the vegetation Dragging its slimy belly on the bank

While I was fishing in the dull canal

C28H

THE FIRE SERMON

On a winter evening round behind the

gashouse 190

Musing upon the king my brother's

wreck And on the king my father's death before

him. White bodies naked on the low damp

ground And bones cast in a little low dry garret, Rattled by the rat's foot only, year to year. But at my back from time to time I hear The sound of horns and motors, which

shall bring

Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring.

O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter

And on her daughter 200

C29:

THE WASTE LAND

They wash their feet in soda water

Et 0 ces voix d'enfants, chantant dans la coupole !

Twit twit twit

Jug jug jug jug jug jug

So rudely forc'd.

Tereu

Unreal City

Under the brown fog of a winter noon Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants 210 C.i.f. London: documents at sight, Asked me in demotic French

To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel C3o3

THE FIRE SERMON

Followed by a weekend at the Metropole.

At the violet hour, when the eyes and back

Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits

Like a taxi throbbing waiting,

I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing be- tween two lives,

Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see

At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives 220

Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,

The typist home at teatime, clears her

breakfast, lights

C3O

THE WASTE LAND

Her stove, and lays out food in tins. Out of the window perilously spread Her drying combinations touched by the

sun's last rays, On the divan are piled (at night her bed) Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays. I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest — I too awaited the expected guest. 230

He, the young man carbuncular, arrives, A small house agent's clerk, with one bold

stare,

One of the low on whom assurance sits

As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.

The time is now propitious, as he guesses,

The meal is ended, she is bored and tired, C3O

THE FIRE SERMON

Endeavours to engage her in caresses Which still are unreproved, if undesired. Flushed and decided, he assaults at once; Exploring hands encounter no defence; 240 His vanity requires no response, And makes a welcome of indifference. (And I Tiresias have foresuffered all Enacted on this same divan or bed; I who have sat by Thebes below the wall And walked among the lowest of the dead.) Bestows one final patronising kiss, And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit . . .

She turns and looks a moment in the glass,

Hardly aware of her departed lover; 250 C 33 3

THE WASTE LAND

Her brain allows one half-formed thought

to pass: "Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's

over." When lovely woman stoops to folly and Paces about her room again, alone, She smoothes her hair with automatic hand, And puts a record on the gramophone.

"This music crept by me upon the

waters" And along the Strand, up Queen Victoria

Street.

O City city, I can sometimes hear

Beside a public bar in Lower Thames

Street, 260

C343

THE FIRE SERMON

The pleasant whining of a mandoline And a clatter and a chatter from within Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the

walls Of Magnus Martyr hold Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white

and gold.

The river sweats

Oil and tar

The barges drift

With the turning tide

Red sails 270

Wide

To leeward, swing on the heavy spar.

The barges wash

C 35 3

THE WASTE LAND

Drifting logs

Down Greenwich reach

Past the Isle of Dogs.

Weialala leia

Wallala leialala Elizabeth and Leicester Beating oars 280

The stern was formed A gilded shell Red and gold The brisk swell Rippled both shores Southwest wind Carried down stream The peal of bells White towers

THE FIRE SERMON

Weialala leia 290

Wallala leialala

"Trams and dusty trees.

Highbury bore me. Richmond and Kew

Undid me. By Richmond I raised my

knees Supine on the floor of a narrow canoe."

"My feet are at Moorgate, and my heart Under my feet. After the event He wept. He promised 'a new start.' I made no comment. What should I resent?"

"On Margate Sands. 300

I can connect

Nothing with nothing. l37l

THE WASTE LAND

The broken fingernails of dirty hands. My people humble people who expect Nothing/'

la la

To Carthage then I came

Burning burning burning burning

0 Lord Thou pluckest me out

O Lord Thou pluckest 310

burning

C38 3

p

IV. DEATH BY WATER

|HLEBAS the Phoenician, a fortnight

dead,

Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea

swell

And the profit and loss.

A current under sea

Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose

and fell

He passed the stages of his age and youth

Entering the whirlpool.

Gentile or Jew

O you who turn the wheel and look to

windward, 320

Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome

and tall as you.

C393

V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

AFTER the torchlight red on sweaty faces After the frosty silence in the gardens After the agony in stony places The shouting and the crying Prison and palace and reverberation Of thunder of spring over distant

mountains He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying With a little patience 330

Here is no water but only rock

Rock and no water and the sandy road

WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

The road winding above among the

mountains Which are mountains of rock without

water If there were water we should stop and

drink Amongst the rock one cannot stop or

think Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand If there were only water amongst the

rock Dead mount in mouth of carious teeth

that cannot spit Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit 340 There is not even silence in the moun- tains

C4i3

THE WASTE LAND

But dry sterile thunder without rain There is not even solitude in the

mountains But red sullen faces sneer and snarl From doors of mudcracked houses

If there were water

And no rock

If there were rock

And also water

And water

A spring 3So

A pool among the rock

If there were the sound of water only

Not the cicada

And dry grass singing

But sound of water over a rock

WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

Where the hermit-thrush sings in the

pine trees Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop But there is no water

Who is the third who walks always beside

you? When I count, there are only you and I together 360

But when I look ahead up the white road There is always another one walking be- side you Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded I do not know whether a man or a woman — But who is that on the other side of

you?

C43 3

THE WASTE LAND

What is that sound high in the air Murmur of maternal lamentation Who are those hooded hordes swarming Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked

earth Ringed by the flat horizon only 370

What is the city over the mountains Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet

air Falling towers

Jerusalem Athens Alexandria

Vienna London

Unreal

A woman drew her long black hair out

tight

IT 44 3

WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

And fiddled whisper music on those strings And bats with baby faces in the violet light Whistled, and beat their wings 380

And crawled head downward down a

blackened wall And upside down in air were towers Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the

hours And voices singing out of empty cisterns

and exhausted wells.

In this decayed hole among the mountains In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel There is the empty chapel, only the wind's

home.

C45 3

THE WASTE LAND

It has no windows, and the door swings,

Dry bones can harm no one. 39o

Only a cock stood on the rooftree

Co co rico co co rico

In a flash of lightning. Then a damp

gust Bringing rain

Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves

Waited for rain, while the black clouds

Gathered far distant, over Himavant.

The jungle crouched, humped in silence.

Then spoke the thunder

Da 400

Datta: what have we given?

My friend, blood shaking my heart

The awful daring of a moment's surrender U6 3

WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

Which an age of prudence can never

retract By this, and this only, we have existed Which is not to be found in our obituaries Or in memories draped by the beneficent

spider Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor In our empty rooms

Da 410

Dayadhvam: I have heard the key Turn in the door once and turn once

only We think of the key, each in his prison Thinking of the key, each confirms a

prison

Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours Z47l

THE WASTE LAND

Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus

Da

Damyata: The boat responded

Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and

oar The sea was calm, your heart would have

responded 420

Gaily, when invited, beating obedient To controlling hands

I sat upon the shore Fishing, with the arid plain behind me Shall I at least set my lands in order?

London Bridge is falling down falling down

falling down

C48 3

WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

Poi s' as cose nel foco che gli affina

Quando fiam ceu chelidon — O swallow

swallow Le Prince d? Aquitaine a la tour abolie These fragments I have shored against my

ruins 43o

Why then lie fit you. Hieronymo's mad

againe. Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

Shantih shantih shantih

C493

NOTES

NOT only the title, but the plan and a good deal of the incidental symbolism of the poem were suggested by Miss Jessie L. Weston's book on the Grail legend: From Ritual to Romance (Macmillan). Indeed, so deeply am I indebted, Miss Weston's book will elucidate the difficulties of the poem much better than my notes can do; and I recom- mend it (apart from the great interest of the book itself) to any who think such elucidation of the poem worth the trouble. To another work of anthropology I am indebted in general, one which has influenced our generation pro- foundly; I mean The Golden Bough; I have used especially the two volumes Atthis Adonis Osiris. Anyone who is acquainted with these works will immediately recognise in the poem certain references to vegetation ceremonies. C53 3

THE WASTE LAND

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

Line 20. Cf. Ezekiel II, i.

23. Cf. Ecclesiastes XII, v.

31. V. Tristan und Isolde, I, verses 5-8.

42. Id. Ill, verse 24.

46. I am not familiar with the exact consti- tution of the Tarot pack of cards, from which I have obviously departed to suit my own convenience. The Hanged Man, a member of the traditional pack, fits my purpose in two ways: because he is associated in my mind with the Hanged God of Frazer, and because I associate him with the hooded figure in the passage of the disciples to Emmaus in Part V. The Phoenician Sailor and the Merchant appear later; also the "crowds of people," and Death by Water is executed in Part IV. The Man with Three Staves (an authentic member of the Tarot pack) I associate, quite arbitrarily, with the Fisher King himself.

60. Cf. Baudelaire:

" Fourmillante cite, cite pleine de reves, C54 3

NOTES

"Ou le spectre en plein jour raccroche le passant."

63. Cf. Inferno III, 55-57:

"si lunga tratta di gente, ch'io non avrei mai creduto che morte tanta n'avesse disfatta."

64. Cf. Inferno IV, 25-27: "Quivi, secondo che per ascoltare, "non avea pianto, ma' che di sospiri, "che l'aura eterna facevan tremare."

68. A phenomenon which I have often noticed.

74. Cf. the Dirge in Webster's White Devil. 76. V. Baudelaire, Preface to Fleurs du Mai.

II. A GAME OF CHESS

77. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, II, ii, 1. 190. 92. Laquearia. V. Aeneid, I, 726:

dependent lychni laquearibus aureis incensi, et noctem flammis funalia vincunt. C55D

THE WASTE LAND

98. Sylvan scene. V. Milton, Paradise Lost, IV, 140.

99. V. Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI, Philomela.

100. Cf. Part III 1. 204. 115. Cf. Part III 1. 195.

118. Cf. Webster: "Is the wind in that door still?"

126. Cf. Part I 1. 37, 48.

138. Cf. the game of chess in Middleton's Women beware Women.

III. THE FIRE SERMON

176. V. Spenser, Protbalamion. 192. Cf. The Tempest, I, ii.

196. Cf. Day, Parliament of Bees: "When of the sudden, listening, you shall hear, "A noise of horns and hunting, which shall

bring "Actaeon to Diana in the spring, "Where all shall see her naked skin . . ."

197. Cf. Marvell, To His Coy Mistress.

n 563

NOTES

199. I do not know the origin of the ballad from which these lines are taken; it was re- ported to me from Sydney, Australia.

202. V. Verlaine, Parsifal.

210. The currants were quoted at a price "carriage and insurance free to London"; and the Bill of Lading etc. were to be handed to the buyer upon payment of the sight draft.

218. Tiresias, although a mere spectator and not indeed a "character," is yet the most important personage in the poem, uniting all the rest. Just as the one-eyed merchant, seller of currants, melts into the Phoenician Sailor, and the latter is not wholly distinct from Ferdinand Prince of Naples, so all the women are one woman, and the two sexes meet in Tiresias. What Tiresias sees, in fact, is the substance of the poem. The whole passage from Ovid is of great anthropological interest:

. . . Cum Iunone iocos et maior vestra profecto est

C57 3

THE WASTE LAND

Quam, quae contingit maribus', dixisse,

'voluptas.' Ilia negat; placuit quae sit sententia docti Quaerere Tiresiae: venus huic erat utraque

not a. Nam duo magnorum viridi coeuntia silva Corpora aerpentum baculi violaverat ictu Deque viro factus, mirabile, femina septem Egerat autumnos; octavo rursus eosdem Vidit et 'est vestrae si tanta potentia plagae,' Dixit 'ut auctoris sortem in contraria mutet, Nunc quoque vos feriam!' percussis anguibus

isdem Forma prior rediit genetivaque venit imago. Arbiter hie igitur sumptus de lite iocosa Dicta Iovis firmat; gravius Saturnia iusto Nee pro materia fertur doluisse suique Iudicis aeterna damnavit lumina nocte, At pater omnipotens (neque enim licet inrita

cuiquam Facta dei fecisse deo) pro lumine adempto Scire futura dedit poenamque levavit honore. 221. This may not appear as exact as £S*1

NOTES

Sappho's lines, but I had in mind the "long- shore" or "dory" fisherman, who returns at nightfall.

253. V. Goldsmith, the song in The Vicar of Wakefield.

257. V. The Tempest, as above.

264. The interior of St. Magnus Martyr is to my mind one of the finest among Wren's interiors. See The Proposed Demolition of Nineteen City Churches: (P. S. King & Son Ltd.).

266. The Song of the (three) Thames- daughters begins here. From line 292 to 306 inclusive they speak in turn. V. Gbtterddm- merung. III, i: the Rhinedaughters.

279. V. Froude, Elizabeth Vol. I, ch. iv, letter of De Quadra to Philip of Spain: "In the afternoon we were in a barge, watch- ing the games on the river. (The queen) was alone with Lord Robert and myself on the poop, when they began to talk nonsense, and went so far that Lord Robert at last said, as I was on the spot there was no reason why they should not be married if the queen pleased." C 59 3

THE WASTE LAND

293 . Cf. Purgatorio, V. 133:

"Ricorditi di me, che son la Pia; "Siena mi fe', disfecemi Maremma."

307. V. St. Augustine's Confessions: "to Carthage then I came, where a cauldron of unholy loves sang all about mine ears."

308. The complete text of the Buddha's Fire Sermon (which corresponds in importance to the Sermon on the Mount) from which these words are taken, will be found translated in the late Henry Clarke Warren's Buddhism in Translation (Harvard Oriental Series). Mr. Warren was one of the great pioneers of Buddhist studies in the Occident.

312. From St. Augustine's Confessions again. The collocation of these two representatives of eastern and western asceticism, as the cul- mination of this part of the poem, is not an accident.

C6o3

NOTES

V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID

In the first part of Part V three themes are employed: the journey to Emmaus, the ap- proach to the Chapel Perilous (see Miss Weston's book) and the present decay of eastern Europe.

357. This is Turdus aonalaschkae pallasii, the hermit-thrush which I have heard in Quebec County. Chapman says {Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America) "it is most at home in secluded woodland and thickety retreats. ... Its notes are not remarkable for variety or volume, but in purity and sweet- ness of tone and exquisite modulation they are unequaled." Its "water-dripping song" is justly celebrated.

360. The following lines were stimulated by the account of one of the Antarctic expeditions (I forget which, but I think one of Shackle- ton's) : it was related that the party of ex- plorers, at the extremity of their strength, C6i3

THE WASTE LAND

had the constant delusion that there was one more member than could actually be counted.

366-76. Cf. Hermann Hesse, Blick ins Chaos: "Schon ist halb Europa, schon ist zumindest der halbe Osten Europas auf dem Wege zum Chaos, fahrt betrunken im heiligem Wahn am Abgrund entlang und singt dazu, singt be- trunken und hymnisch wie Dmitri Kara- masoff sang. Ueber diese Lieder lacht der Burger beleidigt, der Heilige und Seher hort sie mit Tranen."

401. "Datta, dayadhvam, damyata" (Give, sympathise, control). The fable of the mean- ing of the Thunder is found in the Brihada- ranyaka — Upanishad, 5, 1. A translation is found in Deussen's Sechzig Upanishads des Veda> p. 489.

407. Cf. Webster, The White Devil, V. vi:

"... they'll remarry

Ere the worm pierce your winding-sheet, ere

the spider Make a thin curtain for your epitaphs."

1:623

NOTES

411. Cf. Inferno, XXXIII, 46:

"ed io sentii chiavar l'uscio di sotto all'orribile torre."

Also F. H. Bradley, Appearance and Reality, p. 346.

"My external sensations are no less private to myself than are my thoughts or my feelings. In either case my experience falls within my own circle, a circle closed on the outside; and, with all its elements alike, every sphere is opaque to the others which surround it. . . . In brief, regarded as an existence which appears in a soul, the whole world for each is peculiar and private to that soul."

424. V. Weston: From Ritual to Romance; chapter on the Fisher King.

427. V. Purgatorio, XXVI, 148. "'Ara vos prec, per aquella valor

'que vos guida al som de l'escalina, 'sovegna vos a temps de ma dolor.' Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina."

428. V. Pervigilium Veneris. Cf. Philomela

in Parts II and III.

C63n

THE WASTE LAND

429. V. Gerard de Nerval, Sonnet El Desdichado.

431. V. Kyd's Spanish Tragedy.

433. Shantih. Repeated as here, a formal ending to an Upanishad. "The Peace which passeth understanding" is a feeble translation of the content of this word.

C643

T. S. Eliot was born in 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri; he is a graduate of Harvard and studied at the Sor- bonne and at Oxford, has been a lecturer, editor and banker. For the first few years in which his poems appeared he was known to only a small number of readers, but his first book of poems and his long poem, The Waste Land, which has just been pub- lished, have established him, in the opinion of crit- ics, as without question the most significant of the younger American writers. Abroad, and especially in France, he is held to be, in addition, the leader of the strictest and most intelli- gent school of literary criticism. Only one vol- ume of his critical work has been published, under the title of The Sacred Wood.

BON1 AND L1VERIGHT

Publishers 105 W. 40th St., New York

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