T. S. Eliot the Poems, Volume 2
Page 18
X v the publication of the bride-sheets!: showing of blood-stained sheets to the families as proof of consummation. the bride-sheets: OED cites this only. “the bridegroom … blood upon the bed”, Ode (“Tired. | Subterrene”) 9–10.
X vi dressing the sores of animals: Dobrée, misquoting this translation of “les pansements de bêtes”, to TSE, 24 July 1930: “‘They dressed the wounds of the animals’ should be ‘They groomed the animals.’ · · · Panser is the ordinary word for to groom.” TSE to Dobrée, 28 July 1930: “I am quite aware that panser means groom, but it also means dress.” Unchanged in later eds. TSE omits eleven definite articles present in the French sentence (as often elsewhere). building of enclosures of rose red: J. W. Burgon: “A rose-red city—‘half as old as Time’!” Petra 132 (TSE: “rose red”, VI x). fatigue parties: OED “fatigue” 3: “The extra professional duties of a soldier, sometimes allotted to him as punishment for a misdemeanour”.
X vi variant ribbon roads: “And now you live dispersed on ribbon roads”, Choruses from “The Rock” II 44.
[Poem II 113–123 · Textual History II 649]
X vii all conditions of men · · · all sorts of men: “we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men”, Bk. of Common Prayer. water fruits: OED’s sole citation for this formation, among combinations “denoting vegetable growths that live in water” (“water” 31). the smith · · · for fletching: “the fletchers and javelin-makers and smiths”, Coriolan II. Difficulties of a Statesman 22. onomastic: OED B. 3: “pl. The study of the origin and formation of proper names, esp. of persons”. On this, its first citation, OED comments: “The sing. in quot. 1930 is unusual” (rendering Fr. l’onomastique.) quails in the wrinkled land: Tennyson: “The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls”, The Eagle 4 (see note to East Coker I 48–49). Tennyson: “o’er a weary sultry land · · · Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill, | The city sparkles like a grain of salt”, Will 17–20. (Anabasis has “salt” eight times.)
X viii palmtrees · · · a mule and three white hens: “three trees · · · And an old white horse”, Journey of the Magi 24–25. skin-jars: not in OED. “wine-skins”, Journey of the Magi 28. the ambush in the vineyard: 1 Kings 22: 18: “Jezebel his wife said unto him · · · I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth · · · Ahab · · · is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it.” coupling of beasts: “The time of the coupling of man and woman | And that of beasts”, East Coker I 44–45 (see note).
SONG
i–iii so sweet · · · rivers · · · the morning · · · star · · · the dove-moaning tree · · · more sweet · · · my brother the poet: once more he has written a song of great sweetness: Tennyson: “(the shepherd sang) · · · star · · · Morning · · · sweet is every sound, | Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet · · · rivulets · · · The moan of doves in immemorial elms”, Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain height.
ii fasting sky: to Marguerite Caetani, 18 Jan 1927 on his difficulty with Perse’s “ciel à jeun”: “I have not yet found a way of expressing ‘fasting sky’ in English; if I don’t I shall commit myself to the mistranslation in the footnote.” Unchanged; no footnote.
iii the poet · · · has written a song of great sweetness · · · And some there are who: revised in US 1949 from “has written well”, emphasising the allusion to Ecclesiasticus 44: 5–9: “musical tunes, and recited verses · · · There be of them that have left a name behind them · · · And some there be, which have no memorial.”
[Poem II 123–29 · Textual History II 649–50]
Other Verses
“The best of Denham’s verse is not poetry; it is charming verse.” Sir John Denham (1928)
“His early poems show what the poems of a boy of genius ought to show, immense power of assimilation. Such early poems are not, as usually supposed, crude attempts to do something beyond the boy’s capacity; they are, in the case of a boy of real promise, more likely to be quite mature and successful attempts to do something small.” William Blake (1920)
Valerie Eliot specified that TSE’s first poem was composed in 1897, “four little verses, about the sadness of having to start school again every Monday morning” (Letters 1 xxiii).
Fireside: A Weekly Magazine
No. 1, 28 Jan 1899:
“Fiction, Gossip, Theatre, Jokes, and all interesting. Edited by T. S. Eliot. The T. S. Eliot Co., St. Louis” [title page].
“Do you subscribe
To ‘Fireside’?”
Poet’s Corner
I thought I saw a elephant
A-riding on a ’bus
I looked again, and found
Alas! ’Twas only us.
Eliot, S. Thomas.
No. 2, 29 Jan 1899:
[Omitted here: Selections from the Poets I:
Longfellow, first stanza of The Village Blacksmith]
Poet’s Corner
I thought I saw a banker’s clerk
A-riding on a ’bus,
I looked again and saw,
It was a hippo[po]tamus.
“If he should stay to tea,” thought I,
“What would be left for us?”
Anon.
Poetry
I thought I saw a brindle bull
A-running after me
I looked again, and found
That it was just a bee.
Editor
No. 3:
Poet’s Corner
I thought I saw an antique ship
A-sailing on the sea,
I looked again it was
Alas! twas nought but me!
No. 4:
Poets’ Corner
I thought I saw a chimpanzee
A-sitting on a branch,
I looked again and found
Behold! it was a pair of pants.
No. 5:
Poet’s Corner
I thought I saw a little bird
A-sitting on a pan
I looked again, and found
It was a man c[r]ushin’ a can
No. 6:
Poet’s Corner
I thought I saw a kangaroo,
A-jumping on the ground,
I looked again and lo!
It was a earthern mound!
No. 7:
Poet’s Corner
I thought I saw a pair of shoes
A-flinging at my head,
But, lo! behold! I found it was
Some of Mrs. Rogers bread.
Ed—
No. 8:
Poet’s Corner
I thought I saw a log fi-ER
A-crackling in the chimney,
I looked again and found
Behold! I said o jiminey.
No. 11:
There was a young lady named Lu,
Who felt so exceedingly blue,
She was her-ad to state
That it was her fate—
And then she began to bu-hu.
— Anon.
Poet’s Corner
Hasty Ned, the Negro Hustler,
Started out one (1) wintry day
For to take a bundle quickly
For which he expected to get good pay.
(2.
be continued.)
No. 14, 19 Feb 1899:
Poet’s Corner
The fate of the Naughty Boy
A Boy who went to bed one night,
(We all saw him go up)
The Goblins came and they—
They just on him did sup!
Paul Palavier, P. L.
Eliot’s Floral Magazine: A Journal of Floriculture. St. Louis, Mo. Feb 1899:
Poem.
Dear little flower, lift up your head,
One would verily think you were dead.
Come! do not stay in the ground all year long,
Come! while the little birds sing you a song.
The catalogue by TSE’s brother Henry of materials presented to Eliot House at Harvard includes “12 issues of Fir
eside, a magazine written by TSE aet. 9 or 10”, with a note: “4 others were sent to TSE in 1929 by HWE”. (Henry’s count of 12 comprises 11 copies of Fireside and the sole surviving number of the similar Eliot’s Floral Magazine: A Journal of Floriculture.) Three drawings are kept in the same box.
Soldo 1982a: “At 2635 Locust Street, St. Louis, in January of 1899, Thomas Stearns Eliot undertook his first literary creation · · · a magazine called Fireside. Eliot was then living at home and attending Smith Academy in St. Louis. The fall semester was over on 27 January 1899 and during the following three days the ten-year-old Eliot produced the first eight issues of a little home-made magazine · · · Houghton Library, Harvard University, has in its collection of the Eliot Family Papers eleven extant issues of Fireside: numbers 1–8, 11, 13 and 14. (There are no duplicate copies.)
The numbers are not bound together. The approximate dimensions are 12.6cm by 10.2cm · · · The writings and drawings are in pencil on low quality paper and total 176 pages.” Several of the Fireside poems were quoted in Soldo 1982a, identifying Lewis Carroll as a source, and reprinted in Soldo 1983. Three issues have dedications: “This Magazine (all) is dedicated to My Wife” (No. 3); “Remember, to my Wife!” (No. 6); “To my WIFE!” (No. 7). (See Carroll’s “A letter from his wife” in note to No. 1.) A page of No. 13 is headed “POETRY”, but is then blank. The poems are published in full for the first time here.
TSE to James Laughlin, 26 Jan 1939: “I was very glad to hear that you have met my brother, who is a very nice person. It was charming of him to show you the souvenirs of my nonage, but I feel that there is no particular justification for a facsimile reproduction of the Fireside Magazine at this moment.”
No. 1
Title page; 1, 4 The T. S. Eliot Co. · · · a elephant · · · ’Twas only us: for the Eliots and elephants, see headnote to Noctes Binanianæ, 2. COMPOSITION AND CONTRIBUTORS’ PET NAMES.
I thought I saw a elephant: Lewis Carroll: “He thought he saw an Elephant, | That practised on a fife: | He looked again, and found it was | A letter from his wife. | ‘At length I realise’, he said, | ‘The bitterness of Life!’” Sylvie and Bruno ch. V (The Gardener’s Song).
No. 2
I thought I saw a banker’s clerk: “He thought he saw a Banker’s Clerk | Descending from the bus: | He looked again, and found it was | A Hippopotamus: | ‘If this should stay to dine’, he said, | ‘There wo’n’t be much for us!’” Sylvie and Bruno ch. V.
No. 6
I thought I saw a kangaroo · · · I looked again: Carroll: “He thought he saw a Kangaroo | That worked a coffee-mill: | He looked again, and found it was | A Vegetable-Pill”, Sylvie and Bruno ch. VIII (Soldo 1982a).
No. 7
Mrs. Rogers bread: referring to a recipe on the previous page, “Cook’s Corner: How to make turnip pie.”
No. 14
Attribution Paul Palavier: Peter Parley was the pen-name of Samuel Griswold Goodrich, successful children’s author from 1827. See note to Landscapes V. Cape Ann 13, “palaver”, and headnote. P.L.: perhaps “Poet Laureate”?
TEXTUAL HISTORY
No. 8
2 in the chimney] on the hearth 1st reading
Beneath the poem TSE wrote “that’s what I think”, before crossing through the whole page.
No. 11
2 blue] bleu Soldo 1983 Hasty Ned 2 wintry] winter Soldo 1983
No. 14
Title Boy] Boys Soldo 1983 2 all] not 1st reading 3 and they— not Soldo 1983 4 on] one 1st reading
Eliot’s Floral Magazine
4 the] written over I
Dear Charlotte, Hoping you are better
Dear Charlotte,
Hoping you are better,
At least enough to read my letter,
Which I have twisted into rhyme
To amuse you, I have taken time,
5
To tell you of the happenings,
Swimming, rowing, other things
With which I have the time been killing.
Wednesday morning, weather willing,
We after breakfast took a start,
10
Four of us, in a two horse cart
Together with a little luncheon,
Including things quite good to munch on,
To climb a mountain, quite a feat,
3000 ft., and in the heat.
15
To make a lengthy story short,
We did not take the path we ought,
And though we exerted all our powers,
It took us all of three long hours
To reach the top, when, what a view,
20
Mt. Washington, and Montreal too!
We took one hour down the road,
Then two hours more to our abode.
I suppose now I should desist,
For I am needed to assist
25
In making a raft.
The family sends
To you their love and complimen’s.
I must not close without once more a
Health to you and Theodora.
I am afraid this letter will not please you but I hope you will excuse your brother
Tom.
To Charlotte Eliot Smith, Aug [1904], from Oliver’s Corner, Province of Quebec (ms, Houghton).
Published in Letters (1988). Valerie Eliot: “Third in the family, Charlotte (1874–1926) had married George Lawrence Smith, an architect, in September 1903. She studied at the St Louis and Boston Art Schools, sculpture being her special interest · · · In 1903 TSE’s uncle, Christopher Rhodes Eliot, had bought some land over the border in Canada on Lake Memphremagog, as a site for a family camp. In the early years everyone slept under canvas. Her daughter, Theodora, was born on 25 July 1904.”
TEXTUAL HISTORY
4 time,] time Letters 1 5 happenings,] happenings Letters 1 18 three] two three ms 20 Mt.] Mount Letters 1
There’s No One Left to Press my Pants
As I was walking down the street
upon a winter’s day
I saw a man outside a bar,
his aspect was distrait;
His ears were flapping in the breeze,
His pants* were baggy at the knees, * i.e. trousers
He had a baby in his arms
5
and thus I heard him sigh:
“If whiskey’s‡ 15¢ a drink ‡ American whiskey
how many can I buy?”
<
Then soon becoming bolder
I tapped him on the shoulder,
And I said to him: “Look here!
Tell me what’s the matter, mister,
10
Has some wretch deceived your sister?
Or can’t you find an opener for the beer?”
Then straightway he did turn around
and I did hear him sigh.
He flipped the ash from his segar* * cigar
and to me did reply:
“O there’s no one left to press my pants2 2 trousers
15
since Nellie’s went away.
Don’t let me hear that stupid joke:
‘Does matrimony pay?’
Of my eye she was the apple
When I led her to the chapel,
But the cost of living’s risen since our wedding day.
She took the silver-plated spoons,
20
she took the whirling spray,
And all she left me was the kid
and all the bills to pay.
O there’s no one left to mix the drinks,
There’s no one left to clean the sinks,
There’s no one left to press my pants3 3 see above
since Nellie’s went away!”
Published in The Everyman Book of Light Verse ed. Robert Robinson (1984), without TSE’s marginal notes.
Valerie’s Own Book: fair copy on four pages. Date of composition unknown.
Title] Beneath this, TSE wrote: “Composed about 19
10. Still awaiting a [added: musical] composer” (but see note to 15).
1–2 As I was · · · I saw a man: “I was lunching one day · · · when I passed some remark to a man”, Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats 1–2.
2 distrait: OED 2: “Having the attention distracted from what is present; absent-minded. [from mod. F., and usually treated as an alien word · · · with F. fem. distraite.]”
14 segar: OED lists the variant spelling from the 18th and 19th centuries.
15 since Nellie’s went away: Herbert H. Taylor’s sentimental song Since Nellie Went Away (1905) inspired a Broadway show of 1907 and a novel.
16 “Does matrimony pay?”: Corinne Bacon: “It’s all like the old question: ‘Does matrimony pay?’ That depends upon the man (and somewhat upon the woman)”, New York Libraries Apr 1908.
20 whirling spray: OED “whirling” ppl. a.: “whirling plant · · · Desmodium gyrans.” John Lindley, The Treasury of Botany (1866), “Desmodium”: “D. gyrans, the Moving plant, a native of India · · · The singular rotatory motion of the leaflets of this plant renders it an object of great interest. In the trembling poplar · · · the least breath of wind causes the leaf to whirl · · · The movements are most evident if the plant be in a close hothouse.”