by T. S. Eliot
21 And all she left me was the kid: “What you get married for if you don’t want children?” The Waste Land [II] 164.
Dearest Mary | Je suis très affairé
Dearest Mary
Je suis très affairé
And Bucktooth Maclaggan
An undernourished bagman
5
And Mrs H (though rich)
A dreary kind of bitch
But the Hope of meeting Rodger
The Aphrican artful Dodger
And the magnetic
10
Sympathetic pathetic aesthetic
Quality
Of your own personality
And because Im wishin
To see the Great Politician
15
Who is Quite Above Suspicion
Attract me
T.S.E.
Vivien would have made the party brighter
Its a Pity you didnt Invite her
20
But she wouldnt have Come if you had
[envelope]
(1.)
Take, postman, take your little skiff
And ply upstream to HAMMERSMIFF,
And rest your oar (nay, but you shall),
By RIVER HOUSE, at UPPER MALL;
5
This letter, when all’s said and done,
Is meant for Mrs. HUTCHINSON.
W6
To Mary Hutchinson, a half-cousin of Lytton Strachey, 4 June [1923?] (Texas).
3 Bucktooth Maclaggan: art historian Eric MacLagan was knighted for his work at the Ministry of Information during the Great War, and became Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1924. Buck Mulligan is Stephen’s friend in Joyce’s Ulysses.
4 bagman: see note to Macavity: The Railway Cat 19.
5 Mrs. H (though rich): Violet Mary Hammersley, society hostess whose late husband had been a partner in Cox’s Bank.
7 Rodger | The Aphrican artful: Roger Fry’s Vision and Design (1920) included his essays The Art of the Bushmen and Negro Sculpture. Aphrican: among possible 16th-century spellings, OED lists “Aph-”.
14 the Great Politician: H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister 1908–16. TSE expressed esteem for him in a letter to his mother, 29 Dec 1918. To Mary Trevelyan, 16 Nov 1942: “Perhaps some day you will tell me what it feels like, or what it ought to feel like, to be a Great Man · · · I was brought up to believe that the most one could possibly achieve was to be a Credit to the Family, though of course one’s Grandfather was the Great Man, so there was no hope of reaching that eminence.” Again: “Of some great men, one’s prevailing impression may be of goodness, or of inspiration, or of wisdom. I think the prevailing impression one received of Valéry was of intelligence”, “Leçon de Valéry” (1947). To Herbert Read, 24 Feb 1951, after meeting Martin Buber: “One is always hoping to know a Great Man, and in time having afterthoughts, but Buber seems to me pretty close to it.” (“Great duties · · · great deeds · · · heroes greater than were e’er of yore!” To the Class of 1905 25–30.) See note to title Difficulties of a Statesman in Coriolan.
14–15 Great Politician | Who is Quite Above Suspicion: “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion”, trad., based on Plutarch’s Life of Julius Caesar.
Envelope 4 RIVER HOUSE: next door to Kelmscott House. TSE of Yeats’s play The Shadowy Waters: “it strikes me—this may be an impertinence on my part—as the western seas descried through the back window of a house in Kensington, an Irish myth for the Kelmscott Press”, Yeats (1940). MALL: for the vowel sound, see TSE’s notes to Montpelier Row. Pope rhymed “the Mall” with “ball” in The Second Satire of the First Book of Horace. Pronunciation of both “The Mall” and “Pall Mall” has varied.
Aldous Huxley’s Crome Yellow (1921) ch. XX mentions “Mallarmé’s envelopes with their versified addresses”.
TSE to Hutchinson, from Princeton, 10 Oct 1948: “I was very much touched by your having preserved that Hammersmiff envelope all this time”, with a postscript: “Isn’t this a magnificent envelope? But I dare not try any rhyming addresses on the American post‑office.” The envelope verse was included in Would the Real Mr. Eliot Please Stand Up? by Thomas Dozier, Month Oct 1972. After this first in the sequence, further versified addresses followed, to different correspondents.
————
O Postman, will you quickly run
(2.)
To house of COBDEN-SANDERSON
Minding in measures metrical
The address: 15, UPPER MALL;
Or row and tie your little skiff 5
5
Hard by the DOVES at HAMMERSMIFF,
This house is neatly built of bricks
And stands in LONDON at W.6.
ENGLAND.
Addressing an envelope to Sally Cobden-Sanderson, from Cambridge, Mass., 28 Oct 1932 (McCue collection).
4 address: metrically as recommended in OED, àd-dress. See The Ad-dressing of Cats.
6 the DOVES: the Hammersmith pub gave its name to the Doves Press (1900–16), founded by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson. His son Richard was publisher of the Criterion until 1925, and the husband of Sally.
————
(3.)
O Postman! take a little skiff
And ply your oar to HAMMERSMITH;
And let your nearest Port of Call
Be No. 15, UPPER MALL.
5
Demand, before your task is done, 5
The name of COBDEN-SANDERSON.
The house is plainly built of bricks;
The district, clearly, is
W.6.
Addressing an envelope postmarked S. Kensington, SW7, 7 Oct 1934. The letter, dated the previous day, included the verse I have teeth, which are False & Quite Beautiful (see How to Pick a Possum in Noctes Binanianæ) and was sealed with an impression of the TSE family elephant.
————
(4.)
Perhaps you will have been appal-
led by rhyme of upper mall and call.
For everybody knows that Sal-
ly lives at 15, UPPER MALL;
5
Long may the Thames serenely run 5
By house of COBDEN-SANDERSON.
Until death leaves me cold & stiff:
I’ll praise the town of HAMMERSMITH (W.6.)
Postcard of a window in Winchelsea Church, sent on the following day (8 Oct) also from S. Kensington, bearing no message (Hornbake Library, U. Maryland).
5–6 Long may the Thames serenely run · · · –SON: “Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song”, The Waste Land [III] 176.
7–8 stiff · · · HAMMERSMITH: recalling the rhyme of “skiff” and “HAMMERSMIFF” on previous envelopes.
————
(5.)
My good friend Postman, do not falter,
But hasten to Sir Arthur Salter,
And then enquire for LESLIE ROWSE,
Who’s hidden somewhere in the house—
5
For having fled from dons and wardens
He must be sought in CORNWALL GARDENS,
Among the stucco, stones and bricks
You’ll ask for him at SIXTY-SIX.
And now to make my rhyming even,
10
Observe the district,
S.W.7,
You hardly need a lens bi-focal
To see that this address is LOCAL.
Addressing an envelope to A. L. Rowse, 28 Sept 1937 (Exeter U.). Rowse had been elected a Fellow of All Souls in 1925, and later he lectured at Merton. Each of these colleges is headed by a Warden.
2 Sir Arthur Salter: fellow of All Souls and Gladstone Professor of Political Theory, who had been elected MP for Oxford University earlier in 1937.
————
(6.)
Good Postman, leave this at the door
of FIFTY GORDON SQUARE to-day:
I want it to arrive before
The bailey beareth CLIVE BELL away.
W.C.1
Addressing an envelope to Clive Bell, 12 Oct 1937 (Berg). Printed (misdated and mispunctuated) TLS 22 June 2007. TSE to Clive Bell 3 Jan 1941 has a postscript: “Knowing limitations of country postmistresses, I think it more prudent to address this letter in the ordinary way, and not try to burst into vers de circonstance”, but see O stalwart SUSSEX postman for a later versified envelope to Bell, 6 Jan 1948.
4 The bailey beareth CLIVE BELL away: “The bailey beareth the bell away; | The lily, the rose, the rose I lay”, The Bridal Morn (anon, 15th–16th century); see note to Billy M’Caw: The Remarkable Parrot 16, “Lily La Rose”.
————
(7.)
Postman, propel thy feet
And take this note to greet
The Mrs. HUTCHINSON
Who lives in CHARLOTTE STREET.
5
The number’s hard to fix: 5
But it is SEVENTY‑SIX.*
O Postman, leap and run
To take this to
WEST ONE.
* (A stately pleasure‑dome
10
Called “The Policeman’s Home”).
Addressing an envelope to Mary Hutchinson, 26 Mar 1947 (Texas). The first four lines were quoted in Time 6 Mar 1950.
9 stately pleasure-dome: Coleridge: “In Xanadu did Kubla-Khan | A stately pleasure-dome decree”, Kubla Khan 1–2.
10 “The Policeman’s Home”: the painter John Constable lived and died in the house, which no longer stands but appears from photographs to have had a plaque.
————
(8.)
O stalwart SUSSEX postman, who is
Delivering the post from LEWES,
Cycle apace to CHARLTON, FIRLE,
While knitting at your plain and purl,
5
Deliver there to good CLIVE BELL, 5
(You know the man, you know him well,
He plays the virginals and spinet)
This note—there’s almost nothing in it.
Addressing an envelope to Clive Bell, 6 Jan 1948 (Berg). Printed by Bell, with the correct house name, “CHARLESTON”, in March & Tambimuttu eds. 17.
Are you a-
My dear Humbert,
Are you a-
live and a-
bout, and
if
5
so, why
should we not
have lunch
, one day
before too
10
long?
?
Yours e-
ver
,
T. S. Eliot
To Humbert Wolfe, 20 Nov 1928 (Berg).
Wolfe’s Troy was published as an Ariel Poem in 1928.
“But there are two types of true bad poet. The first is a lover of words; he has nothing to say that has not already been said, but he thinks that originality consists in expressing the commonplace sentiment in a slightly unusual syntax, metric, and vocabulary. I knew one such poet, a very intelligent and charming man, who made one great discovery: that by placing a comma, not at the end of the line, but at the beginning of the next line, he could achieve a certain appearance of originality. The other type of bad poet is not a virtuoso; he has found a serious purpose; he has a message to convey”, The Social Function of Poetry (1943), original printed text.
To R. Ellsworth Larsson, 22 May 1928: “there is a tendency in modern verse to make the eye do duty for the ear. That is to say there is always a danger which I have experienced myself of making typographical arrangement a substitute for rhythm. I don’t know whether it could be of any use to you, but I have found myself that it is a great assistance to me to correct my verses by reciting them aloud to myself with the accompaniment of a small drum.”
To E. Foxall, 3 Feb 1932: “My own experience has been that forcing experimentation has sometimes tended to conceal from myself a poverty of what I had to communicate, and I have destroyed a fair number of my verses for this reason.”
Invitation to all Pollicle Dogs & Jellicle Cats
To Tom Faber, Easter 1931 (Valerie Eliot collection):
I Believe that you are to have a Birthday soon, and I think that you will then be Four Years Old (I am not Clever at Arithmetic) but that is a Great Age, so I thought we might send out this
INVITATION
TO ALL POLLICLE DOGS & JELLICLE CATS
TO COME TO THE BIRTHDAY OF
THOMAS FABER
Pollicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats!
Come from your Kennels & Houses & Flats;
Pollicle Dogs & Cats, draw near;
Jellicle Cats & Dogs, Appear;
5
Come with your Ears & your Whiskers & Tails
Over the Mountains & Valleys of Wales.
This is your ONLY CHANCE THIS YEAR,
Your ONLY CHANCE to—what do you spose?—
Brush Up your Coats and Turn out your Toes,
10
And come with a Hop & a Skip & a Dance—
Because, for this year, it’s your ONLY CHANCE
To come with your Whiskers & Tails & Hair on
To
Ty Glyn Aeron
Ciliau Aeron—
Because you are INVITED to Come
15
With a Flute & a Fife & a Fiddle & Drum,
With a Fiddle, a Fife, & a Drum & a Tabor*
To the Birthday Party of
THOMAS ERLE FABER!
Oh But P.S. we mustn’t send out this Invitation after All, Because, if ALL the Pollicle Dogs & Jellicle Cats came (and of course they all would come) then all the roads would be blocked up, and what’s more, they would track Muddy Feet into the House, and your Mother wouldn’t Like that at All, and what’s More Still, you would have to give them All a Piece of your Birthday Cake, and there would be so Many that there wouldn’t be any Cake left for you, and that would be Dreadful, so we won’t send out this invitation, so no more for the Present from your Silly Uncle Tom.
* (A Musicle Instrument that makes a Joyful Noise)
The 18th-century nursery rhyme Boys and Girls Come out to Play, on which this is rhythmically based, is itself an invitation. “Boys and girls come out to play | Come with a whoop and come with a call, | Come with a good will or not at all · · · Up the ladder and down the wall.” TSE’s drawing for the jacket of the first edition of Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats featured kittens dancing and climbing a ladder up a wall; see section title illustration in the present volume.
13 Ty Glyn Aeron | Ciliau Aeron: the Fabers’ country address in Wales. See headnote to Landscapes III. Usk.
TEXTUAL HISTORY
ts1: original letter on Faber stationery to Tom Faber, Geoffrey Faber’s son and TSE’s godson, Easter [5 April] 1931. Decorated with the drawing of a dancing cat with top hat and umbrella. The letter reproduced in facsimile in Bonhams catalogue of “Presentation Copies and Letters from T. S. Eliot to the Faber family”, 20 Sept 2005. (ts readings: “your are”, 14; “flute”, 15 1st reading.)
ts2 (Columbia U.): ribbon copy of a different typing on paper of Barnard College, with a version of The Jim Jum Bears on the verso. Phrasing and lineation differ from ts1, but this is the version that TSE recorded. Whereas the rest of the poem is double spaced, [11–13] are single spaced, suggesting that [12] was initially omitted:
Pollicle dogs and Jellicle cats
Come from your houses and kennels and flats
Pollicle dogs and cats appear;
Jellicle cats and dogs draw near;
5
For this is your only chance this year.
Your only chance to—what do you s’pose?
Brush up your coats and turn out your toes
And come with a hop and a skip and a dance,
Because this year, it’s your only chance
10
To come with your ears and your whiskers and tails
Over the mountains and valleys of Wales
To come with your tails and your whiskers and hai
r on
To Ty Glyn Aeron Ciliau Aeron
To come with a drum and a pipe and a tabor
15
To the birthday party of THOMAS ERLE FABER.
O but stop, just think, if all the pollicles and jellicles came—and they all would come—then all the roads of Cardiganshire and Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire would be blocked for miles and miles; and what’s more they would track muddy feet into the house and your mother wouldnt like that; and what’s more you would have to give them all your birthday cake and there wouldnt be any left for You; so I dont think we will send out this invitation.
TSE made a recording of the poem on an aluminium disc, in New York, probably in 1933. The disc, given to Tom Faber, is now in BL. A section of it was played at the exhibition In a Bloomsbury Square (2009) and broadcast by the BBC’s Front Row, 14 Sept 2009. TSE omits “To” at the beginning of 10, 12, 14.
Cat’s Prologue
Be not astonished at this point to see
Creep on the stage a little cat like me.
This pageant is a kind of pantomime
Where anything may come at any time;
5
And what’s a pantomime without a Cat?
And I’m no ordinary puss at that.
For I was to a worthy master loyal
Who built St. Michael Paternoster Royal: