wasteland.windingway.orgThe Waste Land by T. S. Eliot

THE WASTE LAND :: T. S. ELIOT POEM MAP ENDNOTES SOURCES ABOUT The Waste Land ☰ POEM MAP ENDNOTES SOURCES ABOUT Click on headings, locations, characters, or foreign phrases to access descriptions, translations, and other supplementary information, or click blue line numbers to see Eliot’s notes. In-text links are unmarked by default but turn blue on mouseover. THE WASTE LAND T. S. Eliot 1922 Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent: Σίβνλλα τί ϴέλεις; respondebat illa: άπο ϴανεΐν ϴέλω.” For Ezra Pound il miglior fabbro . I. The Burial of the Dead April is the cruellest month, breeding 1 Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing 2 Memory and desire, stirring 3 Dull roots with spring rain. 4 Winter kept us warm, covering 5 Earth in forgetful snow, feeding 6 A little life with dried tubers. 7 Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee 8 With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, 9 And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten , 10 And drank coffee, and talked for an hour. 11 Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch. 12 And when we were children, staying at the archduke’s, 13 My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled, 14 And I was frightened. He said, Marie, 15 Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. 16 In the mountains, there you feel free. 17 I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter. 18 What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow 19 Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man , 20 You cannot say, or guess, for you know only 21 A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, 22 And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, 23 And the dry stone no sound of water. Only 24 There is shadow under this red rock, 25 (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), 26 And I will show you something different from either 27 Your shadow at morning striding behind you 28 Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; 29 I will show you fear in a handful of dust. 30 Frisch weht der Wind 31 Der Heimat zu, 32 Mein Irisch Kind 33 Wo weilest du? 34 You gave me hyacinths first a year ago, 35 They called me the hyacinth girl.” 36 —Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, 37 Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not 38 Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither 39 Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, 40 Looking into the heart of light, the silence. 41 Oed’ und leer das Meer. 42 Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante, 43 Had a bad cold, nevertheless 44 Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, 45 With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she, 46 Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor, 47 (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!) 48 Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks, 49 The lady of situations. 50 Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel, 51 And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card, 52 Which is blank, is something he carries on his back, 53 Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find 54 The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. 55 I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring. 56 Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone, 57 Tell her I bring the horoscope myself: 58 One must be so careful these days. 59 Unreal City, 60 Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, 61 A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, 62 I had not thought death had undone so many. 63 Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled, 64 And each man fixed his eyes before his feet. 65 Flowed up the hill and down King William Street , 66 To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours 67 With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine. 68 There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying, Stetson! 69 You who were with me in the ships at Mylae ! 70 That corpse you planted last year in your garden, 71 Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? 72 Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? 73 Oh keep the Dog far hence, that’s friend to men, 74 Or with his nails he’ll dig it up again! 75 You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!” 76 II. A Game of Chess The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne, 77 Glowed on the marble, where the glass 78 Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines 79 From which a golden Cupidon peeped out 80 (Another hid his eyes behind his wing) 81 Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra 82 Reflecting light upon the table as 83 The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it, 84 From satin cases poured in rich profusion; 85 In vials of ivory and coloured glass 86 Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes, 87 Unguent, powdered, or liquid—troubled, confused 88 And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air 89 That freshened from the window, these ascended 90 In fattening the prolonged candle-flames, 91 Flung their smoke into the laquearia, 92 Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling. 93 Huge sea-wood fed with copper 94 Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone, 95 In which sad light a carvèd dolphin swam. 96 Above the antique mantel was displayed 97 As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene 98 The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king 99 So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale 100 Filled all the desert with inviolable voice 101 And still she cried, and still the world pursues, 102 Jug Jug” to dirty ears. 103 And other withered stumps of time 104 Were told upon the walls; staring forms 105 Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed. 106 Footsteps shuffled on the stair. 107 Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair 108 Spread out in fiery points 109 Glowed into words, then would be savagely still. 110 My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me. 111 Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak. 112 What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? 113 I never know what you are thinking. Think.” 114 I think we are in rats’ alley 115 Where the dead men lost their bones. 116 What is that noise?” 117 The wind under the door. 118 What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?” 119 Nothing again nothing. 120 Do 121 You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember 122 Nothing?” 123 I remember 124 Those are pearls that were his eyes. 125 Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?” 126 But 127 O O O O that Shakespeherian rag— 128 It’s so elegant 129 So intelligent 130 What shall I do now? What shall I do?” 131 I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street 132 With my hair down, so. What shall we do tomorrow? 133 What shall we ever do?” 134 The hot water at ten. 135 And if it rains, a closed car at four. 136 And we shall play a game of chess, 137 Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door. 138 When Lil’s husband got demobbed, I said— 139 I didn’t mince my words, I said to her myself, 140 Hurry up please its time 141 Now Albert’s coming back, make yourself a bit smart. 142 He’ll want to know what you done with that money he gave you 143 To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there. 144 You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set, 145 He said, I swear, I can’t bear to look at you. 146 And no more can’t I, I said, and think of poor Albert, 147 He’s been in the army four years, he wants a good time, 148 And if you don’t give it him, there’s others will, I said. 149 Oh is there, she said. Something o’ that, I said. 150 Then I’ll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look. 151 Hurry up please its time 152 If you don’t like it you can get on with it, I said. 153 Others can pick and choose if you can’t. 154 But if Albert makes off, it won’t be for lack of telling. 155 You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique. 156 (And her only thirty-one.) 157 I can’t help it, she said, pulling a long face, 158 It’s them pills I took, to bring it off, she said. 159 (She’s had five already, and nearly died of young George.) 160 The chemist said it would be all right, but I’ve never been the same. 161 You are a proper fool, I said. 162 Well, if Albert won’t leave you alone, there it is, I said, 163 What you get married for if you don’t want children? 164 Hurry up...