The Waste Land | Page 4

orange, framed by the coloured stone,
In which sad
light a carved dolphin swam.
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
nightingale 100 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.
Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair

Spread out in fiery points
Glowed into words, then would be savagely
still. 110
"My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
"Speak to me.

Why do you never speak. Speak.
"What are you thinking of? What
thinking? What?
"I never know what you are thinking. Think."
I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.
"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 O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag -
It's so elegant
So
intelligent 130 "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 to-morrow?
"What shall we ever do?"
The hot water 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 -
I didn't mince my words, I
said to her myself, 140 HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
Now
Albert's coming back, make yourself 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,
And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I
said.
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. HURRY UP
PLEASE ITS TIME
If you don't 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
won't 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,
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 won't leave you alone, there it is,
I said, What you get married for if you don't 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 - 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.
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, sandwich papers,
Silk
handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
Or other testimony of
summer nights. The nymphs are departed. And their friends, the
loitering heirs of city directors; 180 Departed, have left no addresses.
Line 161 ALRIGHT. This spelling occurs also in
the Hogarth Press
edition - Editor.
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