THE WASTE LAND	-1
"Nam Sibyllam quidem Cumis ego ipse oculis meis
vidi in ampulla pendere, et cum illi pueri dicerent:
Sibylla ti theleis; respondebat illa: apothanein thelo."	0

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
April is the cruellest month, breeding	-1
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing	0
Memory and desire, stirring	1
Dull roots with spring rain.	2
Winter kept us warm, covering	3
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding	4
A little life with dried tubers.	5
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee	6
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,	7
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,	8
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.	9
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.	10
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,	11
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,	12
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,	13
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.	14
In the mountains, there you feel free.	15
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.	16
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow	17
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,	18
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only	19
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,	20
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,	21
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only	22
There is shadow under this red rock,	23
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),	24
And I will show you something different from either	25
Your shadow at morning striding behind you	26
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;	27
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.	28
Frisch weht der Wind	29
Der Heimat zu	30
Mein Irisch Kind,	31
Wo weilest du?	32
"You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;	33
"They called me the hyacinth girl."	34
- Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,	35
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not	36
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither	37
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,	38
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.	39
Od' und leer das Meer.	40
Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,	41
Had a bad cold, nevertheless	42
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,	43
With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,	44
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,	45
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)	46
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,	47
The lady of situations.	48
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,	49
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,	50
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,	51
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find	52
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.	53
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.	54
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,	55
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:	56
One must be so careful these days.	57
Unreal City,	58
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,	59
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,	60
I had not thought death had undone so many.	61
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,	62
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.	63
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,	64
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours	65
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.	66
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying "Stetson!	67
"You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!	68
"That corpse you planted last year in your garden,	69
"Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?	70
"Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?	71
"Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,	72
"Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!	73
"You! hypocrite lecteur! - mon semblable, - mon frere!"	74

II. A GAME OF CHESS
The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne,	-1
Glowed on the marble, where the glass	0
Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines	1
From which a golden Cupidon peeped out	2
(Another hid his eyes behind his wing)	3
Doubled the flames of sevenbranched candelabra	4
Reflecting light upon the table as	5
The glitter of her jewels rose to meet it,	6
From satin cases poured in rich profusion;	7
In vials of ivory and coloured glass	8
Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes,	9
Unguent, powdered, or liquid - troubled, confused	10
And drowned the sense in odours; stirred by the air	11
That freshened from the window, these ascended	12
In fattening the prolonged candle-flames,	13
Flung their smoke into the laquearia,	14
Stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling.	15
Huge sea-wood fed with copper	16
Burned green and orange, framed by the coloured stone,	17
In which sad light a carved dolphin swam.	18
Above the antique mantel was displayed	19
As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene	20
The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king	21
So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale	22
Filled all the desert with inviolable voice	23
And still she cried, and still the world pursues,	24
"Jug Jug" to dirty ears.	25
And other withered stumps of time	26
Were told upon the walls; staring forms	27
Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.	28
Footsteps shuffled on the stair.	29
Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair	30
Spread out in fiery points	31
Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.	32
"My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.	33
"Speak to me. Why do you never speak. Speak.	34
"What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?	35
"I never know what you are thinking. Think."	36
I think we are in rats' alley	37
Where the dead men lost their bones.	38
"What is that noise?"	39
The wind under the door.	40
"What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?"	41
Nothing again nothing.	42
"Do	43
"You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember	44
"Nothing?"	45
I remember	46
Those are pearls that were his eyes.	47
"Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?"	48
But	49
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag -	50
It's so elegant	51
So intelligent	52
"What shall I do now? What shall I do?"	53
I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street	54
"With my hair down, so. What shall we do to-morrow?	55
"What shall we ever do?"	56
The hot water at ten.	57
And if it rains, a closed car at four.	58
And we shall play a game of chess,	59
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.	60
When Lil's husband got demobbed, I said -	61
I didn't mince my words, I said to her myself,	62
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME	63
Now Albert's coming back, make yourself a bit smart.	64
He'll want to know what you done with that money he gave you	65
To get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.	66
You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set,	67
He said, I swear, I can't bear to look at you.	68
And no more can't I, I said, and think of poor Albert,	69
He's been in the army four years, he wants a good time,	70
And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said.	71
Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I said.	72
Then I'll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight	73
look.	74
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME	75
If you don't like it you can get on with it, I said.	76
Others can pick and choose if you can't.	77
But if Albert makes off, it won't be for lack of telling.	78
You ought to be ashamed, I said, to look so antique.	79
(And her only thirty-one.)	80
I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face,	81
It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she said.	82
(She's had five already, and nearly died of young George.)	83
The chemist said it would be alright, but I've never been the	84
same.	85
You are a proper fool, I said.	86
Well, if Albert won't leave you alone, there it is, I said,	87
What you get married for if you don't want children?	88
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME	89
Well, that Sunday Albert was home, they had a hot gammon,	90
And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot -	91
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME	92
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME	93
Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou. Goonight May. Goonight.	94
Ta ta. Goonight. Goonight.	95
Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good	96
night.	97

III. THE FIRE SERMON
The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf	-1
Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind	0
Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.	1
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.	2
The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,	3
Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends	4
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.	5
And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;	6
Departed, have left no addresses.	7
By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept . . .	8
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,	9
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.	10
But at my back in a cold blast I hear	11
The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.	12
A rat crept softly through the vegetation	13
Dragging its slimy belly on the bank	14
While I was fishing in the dull canal	15
On a winter evening round behind the gashouse	16
Musing upon the king my brother's wreck	17
And on the king my father's death before him.	18
White bodies naked on the low damp ground	19
And bones cast in a little low dry garret,	20
Rattled by the rat's foot only, year to year.	21
But at my back from time to time I hear	22
The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring	23
Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring.	24
O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter	25
And on her daughter	26
They wash their feet in soda water	27
Et O ces voix d'enfants, chantant dans la coupole!	28
Twit twit twit	29
Jug jug jug jug jug jug	30
So rudely forc'd.	31
Tereu	32
Unreal City	33
Under the brown fog of a winter noon	34
Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant	35
Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants	36
C.i.f. London: documents at sight,	37
Asked me in demotic French	38
To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel	39
Followed by a weekend at the Metropole.	40
At the violet hour, when the eyes and back	41
Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits	42
Like a taxi throbbing waiting,	43
I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,	44
Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see	45
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives	46
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,	47
The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights	48
Her stove, and lays out food in tins.	49
Out of the window perilously spread	50
Her drying combinations touched by the sun's last rays,	51
On the divan are piled (at night her bed)	52
Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays.	53
I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs	54
Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest -	55
I too awaited the expected guest.	56
He, the young man carbuncular, arrives,	57
A small house agent's clerk, with one bold stare,	58
One of the low on whom assurance sits	59
As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.	60
The time is now propitious, as he guesses,	61
The meal is ended, she is bored and tired,	62
Endeavours to engage her in caresses	63
Which still are unreproved, if undesired.	64
Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;	65
Exploring hands encounter no defence;	66
His vanity requires no response,	67
And makes a welcome of indifference.	68
(And I Tiresias have foresuffered all	69
Enacted on this same divan or bed;	70
I who have sat by Thebes below the wall	71
And walked among the lowest of the dead.)	72
Bestows one final patronising kiss,	73
And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit . . .	74
She turns and looks a moment in the glass,	75
Hardly aware of her departed lover;	76
Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass:	77
"Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over."	78
When lovely woman stoops to folly and	79
Paces about her room again, alone,	80
She smoothes her hair with automatic hand,	81
And puts a record on the gramophone.	82
"This music crept by me upon the waters"	83
And along the Strand, up Queen Victoria Street.	84
O City city, I can sometimes hear	85
Beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street,	86
The pleasant whining of a mandoline	87
And a clatter and a chatter from within	88
Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the walls	89
Of Magnus Martyr hold	90
Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold.	91
The river sweats	92
Oil and tar	93
The barges drift	94
With the turning tide	95
Red sails	96
Wide	97
To leeward, swing on the heavy spar.	98
The barges wash	99
Drifting logs	100
Down Greenwich reach	101
Past the Isle of Dogs.	102
Weialala leia	103
Wallala leialala	104
Elizabeth and Leicester	105
Beating oars	106
The stern was formed	107
A gilded shell	108
Red and gold	109
The brisk swell	110
Rippled both shores	111
Southwest wind	112
Carried down stream	113
The peal of bells	114
White towers	115
Weialala leia	116
Wallala leialala	117
"Trams and dusty trees.	118
Highbury bore me. Richmond and Kew	119
Undid me. By Richmond I raised my knees	120
Supine on the floor of a narrow canoe."	121
"My feet are at Moorgate, and my heart	122
Under my feet. After the event	123
He wept. He promised 'a new start'.	124
I made no comment. What should I resent?"	125
"On Margate Sands.	126
I can connect	127
Nothing with nothing.	128
The broken fingernails of dirty hands.	129
My people humble people who expect	130
Nothing."	131
la la	132
To Carthage then I came	133
Burning burning burning burning	134
O Lord Thou pluckest me out	135
O Lord Thou pluckest	136
burning	137

IV. DEATH BY WATER
Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,	-1
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell	0
And the profit and loss.	1
A current under sea	2
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell	3
He passed the stages of his age and youth	4
Entering the whirlpool.	5
Gentile or Jew	6
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,	7
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.	8

V. WHAT THE THUNDER SAID
After the torchlight red on sweaty faces	-1
After the frosty silence in the gardens	0
After the agony in stony places	1
The shouting and the crying	2
Prison and palace and reverberation	3
Of thunder of spring over distant mountains	4
He who was living is now dead	5
We who were living are now dying	6
With a little patience	7
Here is no water but only rock	8
Rock and no water and the sandy road	9
The road winding above among the mountains	10
Which are mountains of rock without water	11
If there were water we should stop and drink	12
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think	13
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand	14
If there were only water amongst the rock	15
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit	16
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit	17
There is not even silence in the mountains	18
But dry sterile thunder without rain	19
There is not even solitude in the mountains	20
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl	21
From doors of mudcracked houses	22
If there were water	23
And no rock	24
If there were rock	25
And also water	26
And water	27
A spring	28
A pool among the rock	29
If there were the sound of water only	30
Not the cicada	31
And dry grass singing	32
But sound of water over a rock	33
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees	34
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop	35
But there is no water	36
Who is the third who walks always beside you?	37
When I count, there are only you and I together	38
But when I look ahead up the white road	39
There is always another one walking beside you	40
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded	41
I do not know whether a man or a woman	42
- But who is that on the other side of you?	43
What is that sound high in the air	44
Murmur of maternal lamentation	45
Who are those hooded hordes swarming	46
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth	47
Ringed by the flat horizon only	48
What is the city over the mountains	49
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air	50
Falling towers	51
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria	52
Vienna London	53
Unreal	54
A woman drew her long black hair out tight	55
And fiddled whisper music on those strings	56
And bats with baby faces in the violet light	57
Whistled, and beat their wings	58
And crawled head downward down a blackened wall	59
And upside down in air were towers	60
Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours	61
And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells.	62
In this decayed hole among the mountains	63
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing	64
Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel	65
There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.	66
It has no windows, and the door swings,	67
Dry bones can harm no one.	68
Only a cock stood on the rooftree	69
Co co rico co co rico	70
In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust	71
Bringing rain	72
Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves	73
Waited for rain, while the black clouds	74
Gathered far distant, over Himavant.	75
The jungle crouched, humped in silence.	76
Then spoke the thunder	77
DA	78
Datta: what have we given?	79
My friend, blood shaking my heart	80
The awful daring of a moment's surrender	81
Which an age of prudence can never retract	82
By this, and this only, we have existed	83
Which is not to be found in our obituaries	84
Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider	85
Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor	86
In our empty rooms	87
DA	88
Dayadhvam: I have heard the key	89
Turn in the door once and turn once only	90
We think of the key, each in his prison	91
Thinking of the key, each confirms a prison	92
Only at nightfall, aetherial rumours	93
Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus	94
DA	95
Damyata: The boat responded	96
Gaily, to the hand expert with sail and oar	97
The sea was calm, your heart would have responded	98
Gaily, when invited, beating obedient	99
To controlling hands	100
I sat upon the shore	101
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me	102
Shall I at least set my lands in order?	103
London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down	104
Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina	105
Quando fiam ceu chelidon - O swallow swallow	106
Le Prince d'Aquitaine a la tour abolie	107
These fragments I have shored against my ruins	108
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe.	109
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.	110
Shantih shantih shantih	111