“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
T.S. Eliot
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
The river’s tent is broken . . .
The nymphs are departed.
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
But at my back in a cold blast I hear
The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 183-6
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
A rat crept softly through the vegetation
Dragging its slimy belly on the bank
While I was fishing in the dull canal
On a winter evening round behind the gashouse
Musing upon the king my brother’s wreck
And on the king my father’s death before him.
White bodies naked on the low damp ground
And bones cast in a little low dry garret,
Rattled by the rat’s foot only, year to year.
But at my back from time to time I hear
The sound of horns and motors, which will bring
Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring.
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 187-98
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
At the violet hour, when the eyes and back
Turn upward from the desk, when the human
engine waits
Like a taxi throbbing waiting,
I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two
lives,
Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,
The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast,
lights
Her stove, and lays out food in tins.
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 215-23
Odysseus questioning Tiresias
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
The time is now propitious, as he guesses;
The meal is ended, she is bored and tired.
Endeavors to engage her in caresses
Which still are unreproved, if undesired.
Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
Exploring hands encounter no defense.;
His vanity requires no response,
ROMEO If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JULIET Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too
much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
And makes a welcome of indifference.
ROMEO Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
(And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
JULIET Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
Enacted on this same divan or bed;
I who have sat by Thebes below the wall
And walked among the lowest of the dead.)
Bestows one final patronizing kiss,
And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit.
ROMEO O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET Saints do not move, though grant for prayers'
sake.
ROMEO Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 235-48
Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, I. v. 95-12
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
Isle of Dogs
The barges wash
Drifting logs
“Greenwich Reach,” Roy Hammond
Down Greenwich reach
Past the Isle of Dogs.
Weialala leia
Weialala leia
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 273-8
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
‘On Margate Sands.
I can connect
Nothing with nothing.
The broken fingernails of dirty hands.
My people humble people who expect
Nothing.’
la la
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 300-6
“Storm on Margate Sands,” J. M. W. Turner (1820)
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
To Carthage then I came
Burning burning burning burning
O Lord Thou pluckest me out
O Lord Thou pluckest
burning
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 308-11
The Buddha gave a sermon on fire to
Uruvela Kassapa, Nadi Kassapa, Gaya
Kassapa, as well as their 1000 disciples,
and made them all attain Arahatship.
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth,
Entering the whirlpool
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 315-18
“Phlebas the Phoenician, A Fortnight Dead”
Diane Fenster, 2000
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
After the torchlight red on sweaty faces
After the frosty silence in the gardens
After the agony in stony places
The shouting and the crying
Prison and palace and reverberation
Of thunder of spring over distant mountains
He who was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 322-30
“Four Scenes from the Passion”
follower of Barend van Orley, 1520
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water.
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 347-59
Mt. Sinai
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
Jerusalem
Athens
Alexandria
London
Vienna
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
In this decayed hole among the mountains
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.
It has no windows, and the door swings,
Dry bones can harm no one.
Only a cock stood on the rooftree
Co co rico co co rico
In a flash of lightning.
Then a damp gust
Bringing rain.
Eliot, the Waste Land, ll. 385-94
Sir Galahad approaching the Chapel Perilous
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
DA
The creator God Prajapati utters this syllable to three
groups.
Humans (the greedy ones) interpreted is as “give”
(Datta)
Demons (the cruel ones) interpreted it as “be
compassionate” (Dayadhvam)
Lesser gods (the unruly ones) interpreted it as “control
yourselves” (Damyata)
Hence the three virtues: charity, mercy, control
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 401ff
Prajapati
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
A medieval design of
the Fisher King
I sat upon the shore
Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
Shall I at least set my lands in order?
London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down . . .
These fragments I have shored against my ruins
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo’s mad againe.
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Shantih
shantih
shantih
Eliot, The Waste Land, ll. 423-6
“Mermaids Singing, Each to Each”
Taittirya
Upanishad
you broke another mirror, you're turning into something you are not