The Waste Land and Other Poems (11 page)

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Authors: T. S. Eliot

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‘COUSIN NANCY’
1
(p. 27)
Matthew and Waldo:
Eliot perhaps intends Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) as competing British and American emblems of Victorian propriety.
‘MR.APOLLINAX’
1
(p. 28) Ω Γnζ
Kαivóητoζ. ‘Hpakλεiζ
τnς
παρδoξoλo
eíαζ.
εvµnχανo
avθρωπ
o
ς...
LUCIAN:
From the second-century Greek historian’s ‘Zeuxis or Antiochus’: ‘What an ingenious fellow!’
2
(p. 28)
Mr. Apollinax :
The poem’s title character is a caricature of Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), the Harvard philosopher and mathematician with whom Eliot studied.
3
(p. 18)
Priapus:
This Roman fertility god was mainly known for his huge phallus. All the other characters named in this poem are Eliot’s inventions.
‘CONVERSATION GALANTE’
1
(p. 31)
Prester John’s:
Prester (Priest) John was a legendary Christian king of the east.
‘LA FIGLIA CHE PIANGE’
1
(p. 32) La Figlia che Piange: The title is Italian for ‘The Weeping Girl.’
2
(p. 32) O quam te memorem virgo ...: The epigraph is a quotation from Virgil’s
Aeneid
1.327: ‘0 maiden, by what name shall I know you?’ Eliot’s poem was inspired by a scene on a stele (a sculptured or inscribed stone slab used as a monument) that Eliot had been told to see on a trip to Italy but was unable to find.
Poems 1920
‘GERONTION’
1
(p. 37)
Gerontion:
The word is Greek for ‘little old man.’
2
(p. 37)
Thou hast ... of both:
The lines are slightly misquoted from Shakespeare’s
Measure for Measure
(act 3, scene 1).
3
(p. 37)
estaminet:
Café.
4
(p. 37) ‘We
would see a sign!’:
In the Bible (Matthew 12:38-39), the Pharisees called upon Christ to demonstrate his divinity by performing a miracle. Eliot’s source is a 1618 Nativity Sermon by Bishop Lancelot Andrewes.
5
(p. 37) judas: This tree—named after Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus—is reputed to be the type of tree from which he hanged himself.
6
(p. 38) Limoges: This French city is renowned for its China.
7
(p. 38)
Fräulein von Kulp
: This and the other proper names in this passage (excepting Titian, an Italian Renaissance painter, c.1485-1576) are characters Eliot invented; their names are meant to suggest dubious foreigners who are perhaps participating in some sort of seance.
8
(p. 38)
contrived corridors:
Perhaps Eliot means to evoke the Polish Corridor, a piece of land taken from Germany and given to Poland under the Treaty of Versailles (1919) that followed the end of World War I. Eliot would probably concur with the judgment of many historians that the treaty carved up Europe in a way which was politically and culturally unstable, and that it effected only a temporary peace which led to the resumption of European conflict in World War II.
9
(p. 38)
weak hands:
The phrase echoes Percy Bysshe Shelley’s
Adonais
(stanza 27).
10
(p. 38)
the wrath-bearing tree:
Perhaps Eliot is referring to the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.
11
(p. 39) De
Bailhache,
Fresca, Mrs.
Cammel:
Again, these are fictitious figures.
12
(p. 39) Bear: Eliot is referring to the constellation Ursa Major (also known as the Big Dipper).
13
(p. 39)
the windy straits / Of Belle Isle:
The Strait of Belle Isle is a passage in eastern Canada, between Newfoundland and Labrador, that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Gulf of St. Lawrence; the cold Labrador Current flows through the strait.
14
(p. 39) the Horn: Cape Horn is a rocky headland off the southern tip of South America.
15
(p. 39)
the Trades:
That is, the trade winds, steady westward winds that blow toward the equator.
‘BURBANK WITH ABAEDEKER:
BLElSTElN WITH A CIGAR’
1
(p. 40)
Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar:
A Baedeker is a tourist guidebook. Burbank and Bleistein are made-up American characters.
2
(p. 40) Tra-la-la-la-la-la-laire ... and so departed: The epigraph contains fragments from six texts connected with Venice, by Théophile Gautier, Mantegna, Henry James
(The Aspern Papers),
Shakespeare
(Othello),
Robert Browning (‘A Toccata of Galuppi’s’), and John Marston.
3
(p. 40)
Princess Volupine:
Princess Volupine and, near the end of the poem, Sir Ferdinand Klein are Eliot’s inventions.
4
(p. 40)
They were together, and he fell:
Echoes a line from ‘The Sisters,’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892).
5
(p. 40)
the God Hercules:
This mythical hero (Hercules to the Romans, Heracles to the Greeks) possessed fabulous strength; he performed twelve monumental tasks (‘the labors of Hercules’) that earned him immortality and the status of a god.
6
(p. 40) Istria: City near Venice, in present-day Croatia.
7
(p. 40)
Canaletto:
Giovanni Antonio Canale (1697-1768), known by the nickname Canaletto, painted many views of the Venetian canals.
8
(p. 40)
Rialto:
This ancient district of Venice is the city’s commercial center.
9
(p. 41)
lion’s wings:
A winged lion is the emblem of Saint Mark, patron saint of Venice.
‘SWEENEY ERECT’
1
(p. 42) And the trees ... wenches!: The quotation is from
The Maides Tragedy
(c.1611; act 2, scene 2), by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher.
2
(p. 42)
Cyclades:
This group of Greek islands is in the Aegean Sea.
3
(p. 42)
Aeolus:
Greek god of the winds.
4
(p. 42)
Ariadne:
In Greek myth, daughter of King Minos of Crete; in love with the hero Theseus, she helped him find his way in and out of the labyrinth.
5
(p. 42)
Nausicaa:
In Greek myth, this king’s daughter discovered Odysseus when he was shipwrecked and cast up upon the shore.
6
(p. 42)
Polypheme:
In Greek myth, he was the leader of the Cyclopes, a race of one-eyed giants.
7
(p. 43)
Emerson:
Eliot paraphrases Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay ‘Self-Reliance’ (1841): ‘an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.
‘ACOOKING EGG’
1
(p. 44) A
Cooking
Egg: An egg too stale to be eaten plain, but usable in a recipe.
2
(p. 44) En l’an trentiesme ... j‘ay beues ... : The lines are by French lyric poet François Villon (1431-after 1463): ‘In my thirtieth year, when I drank up all my shame ...’
3
(p. 44) Invitation to the Dance: Sheet music for a nineteenth-century song.
4
(p. 44)
Sir Philip Sidney:
English poet and statesman (1554-1586) of the Elizabethan era.
5
(p. 44)
Coriolanus:
Hero of Shakespeare’s play of that name—a Roman general.
6
(p. 44)
Sir Alfred Mond:
Mond (1868-1930) was a wealthy British industrialist ; his Jewish heritage prompts a stereotypical slur here.
7
(p. 44)
Lucretia Borgia:
Borgia ( 1480-1519), duchess of Ferrara, was intimate with many noble Italian families.
8
(p. 44)
Madame Blavatsky:
Russian-born Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a spiritualist who in 1875 organized the Theosophical Society.
9
(p. 44)
Seven Sacred Trances:
Part of the secret doctrines of Theosophy.
10
(p. 44)
Piccarda de Donati:
Figure from canto 3 of Dante’s
Paradiso:
a nun who broke her vows.
11
(p. 45)
penny world:
A bakery sweet treat.
12
(p. 45)
Kentish Town and Golder’s Green:
Northern suburbs of London.
13
(p. 45) A.B.C.’s: The Aerated Bread Company, a chain of English tea shops.
‘LE DIRECTEUR’
1
(p. 46)
Le Directeur:
French for ‘The Director.’ English translation by Annie Sokolov-Uris and Robert G. Uris:
Woe unto the woeful Thames
Which runs so close to the Spectator.
The director
Conservative
Of the Spectator
Infects the breeze.
The stockholders
Reactionaries
Of the Spectator
Conservative
Arm in arm
Playing tricks
With slinking steps.
In a gutter
A little girl
In rags
Grimly
Looks at
The director
Of the Spectator
Conservative
And dies of love.
2
(p. 46) Spectateur: The Spectator,
a highbrow London weekly magazine.
‘MELANGE ADULTÈRE DE TOUT’
1
(p. 47)
Mélange adultère de tout:
French for ‘Adulterous Mixture of Everything.’ English translation by Annie Sokolov-Uris and Robert G. Uris:
In America, professor;
In England, journalist;
It is with big steps and in a sweat
That you barely follow my tracks.
In Yorkshire, lecturer;
In London, a little bit of a banker,
You will pay me well by the head.
It is in Paris that I get my hairdo
Black helmet of a carefree person.
In Germany, philosopher
Over-excited by Emporheben
With the grand air of Bergsteigleben;
I always wander from here to there
With some tra là là
From Damascus to Omaha.
I will celebrate my saint’s day
In an African oasis
Clothed in a giraffe’s skin.
One will show my cenotaph
On the burning coast of Mozambique.
‘LUNE DE MIEL’
1
(p. 48)
Lune de miel:
French for ‘Honeymoon.’ English translation by Annie Sokolov-Uris and Robert G. Uris:
They saw the Low Countries, they returned to Terre Haute;
But one summer night, here they are in Ravenna,
At ease between two sheets, in the home of two hundred
bedbugs.
The summer sweat, and a strong odor of bitch.
They stay on their backs their knees spread
From four flabby legs completely swollen from bites.
One lifts the sheet to scratch better.
Less than a league from here is Saint Apollinaire
In class, a basilica known by lovers
Of acanthus columns with winds swirling around.
They are going to take the eight o‘clock train
To prolong their misery from Padua to Milan
Where one finds The Last Supper, and a cheap restaurant.
He thinks about tips, and draws up his balance sheet.
They will have seen Switzerland and crossed France.
And Saint Apollinaire, stiff and ascetic,
Old deconsecrated factory, still holding
In its crumbling stones the precise form of Byzantium.
‘THE HIPPOPOTAMUS’
1
(p. 49)
The Hippopotamus:
A parody of ‘L’Hippopotame,’ by Théophile Gautier (1811-1872).
2
(p. 49) Similiter et omnes ... S.
IGNATII AD TRALLIANOS:
In like manner let all men respect the deacons as Jesus Christ, even as they should respect the bishop as being a type of the Father and the presbyters as the council of God and as the college of Apostles. Apart from these there is not even the name of a church. And I am persuaded that ye are so minded as touching these matters. Saint Ignatius to the Trallians.
3
(p. 49) And when this epistle ... church of the Laodiceans: From the Bible, St. Paul’s epistle to the Colossians 4:16.
4
(p. 49)
based upon a rock:
In the Bible (Matthew 16:18), Christ says, ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church’ (KJV).
5
(p. 50)
quiring:
Choiring.
‘DANS LE RESTAURANT’
1
(p. 51 )
Dans le Restaurant:
French for ‘In the Restaurant.’ English translation by Annie Sokolov-Uris and Robert G. Uris:
The dilapidated waiter who has nothing to do
But to scratch his fingers and lean on my shoulder:
‘In my country the weather will be rainy,
Some wind, some strong sun and some rain;
It is what one calls the tramp’s laundry day.’
(Chatterbox, drooling, with a rounded rump,
I beg you, at least, don’t drool in the soup).
‘The wet willow, and some buds on the roots.
It is here, in a downpour, where you find shelter.
I was seven, she was younger.
She was all wet, I gave her some primroses.’
The spots on his vest summed to thirty-eight.
‘I would tickle her to make her laugh.
I felt a moment of power and delirium.’
But then, lubricious old man, at your age ...
‘Sir, the fact is hard.
He came, to hug us, a big dog;
I was afraid, I left him halfway.
It’s a shame.’
But then you have your vulture!
Go and wipe the wrinkles off your face;
Here, my fork, scrape away the dirt from your skull.
By what right are you paying for experiences like me?
Hold on, here are ten sous, for the bathroom.
Phlebas, the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls and the wind’s howl of
Cornwall,
And the profit and loss, and the cargo ships of pewter:
An undertow took him far away,
Passing the stages of his former life.
Go figure, it was a hard fate;
Nevertheless, he was once a handsome man, of great
stature.

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