75 And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep . . . tired .. . or it malingers, Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
so Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a
platter,7
5. Cf. Shakespeare's Twelfth Nig fit 1.1.4: 'That Hamlet 2.2.201?02: 'for you yourself, sir, should strain again, it had a dying fall.' be old as I am?if, like a crab, you could go back6. I.e., he would have been better as a crab on the ward.' ocean bed. Perhaps, too, the motion of a crab sug-7. Like that of John the Baptist. See Mark 6.17gests futility and growing old. Cf. Shakespeare's 28 and Matthew 14.3-11.
.
2292 / T. S. ELIOT
I am no prophet?and here's no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, 85 And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid.
And would it have been worth it, after all, After the cups, the marmalade, the tea, Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
90 Would it have been worth while, To have bitten off the matter with a smile, To have squeezed the universe into a ball8 To roll it toward some overwhelming question, To say: 'I am Lazarus,9 come from the dead,
95 Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all'?
If one, settling a pillow by her head, Should say: 'That is not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all.'
And would it have been worth it, after all,
IOO Would it have been worth while, After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor? And this, and so much more?? It is impossible to say just what I mean!
105 But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say:
'That is not it at all, 110 That is not what I meant, at all.'
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress,1 start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
us Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence,2 but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous? Almost, at times, the Fool.
120 I grow old ... I grow old . . . I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
8. Cf. 'To His Coy Mistress,' lines 41-44: 'Let us made by a royal or noble person. Elizabethan plays roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into sometimes showed such 'progresses' crossing the one ball, / And tear our pleasures with rough strife stage. Cf. Chaucer's General Prologue to The Can/ Thorough the iron gates of life.' terbury Tales, line 308. 9. Raised by Jesus from the dead (Luke I 6.19?31 2. In its older meanings: 'opinions,' 'sententiousand John 11.1-44). ness.' 1. In the Elizabethan sense of a state journey
.
SWEENEY AMONG THE NIGHTINGALES / 229 3
125 I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea 130 By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
1910-11 1915,1917
Sweeney among the Nightingales
d'j(j.oL, jisjcXr|Y|.iai Kaipia v 3tX.tiyr)v eaco.1
Apeneck Sweeney spreads his knees Letting his arms hang down to laugh, The zebra stripes along his jaw Swelling to maculate0 giraffe. spotted, stained
5 The circles of the stormy moon Slide westward toward the River Plate,2 Death and the Raven1 drift above And Sweeney guards the horned gate.4
Gloomy Orion and the Dog
10 Are veiled;5 and hushed the shrunken seas; The person in the Spanish cape Tries to sit on Sweeney's knees
Slips and pulls the table cloth Overturns a coffee-cup, 15 Reorganized upon the floor She yawns and draws a stocking up;
The silent man in mocha brown Sprawls at the window-sill and gapes; The waiter brings in oranges
20 Bananas figs and hothouse grapes;
The silent vertebrate in brown Contracts and concentrates, withdraws; Bachel nee Rabinovitch Tears at the grapes with murderous paws;
