The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I Read online

  In addition, Eliot had used indents for other purposes. At the end of Ash-Wednesday V, for instance, the solitary line “O my people” was already indented. Here, in a different form, was the original problem once more: how could the author’s deliberate spacing be distinguished from the contingencies of book production?

  Faber adopted Penguin’s procedure in the first paperback edition of Four Quartets in 1959 but handled it badly, causing distortions for instance of the shape of the lyrical sections numbered IV in both Burnt Norton and Little Gidding. In 1963, the inconsistencies among the indents continued to proliferate. If the first line of each subsection in Portrait of a Lady required an indent, for instance, there is no reason why this did not also apply to Rhapsody on a Windy Night or Conversation Galante. Nor is there a reason why the first lines of East Coker and The Dry Salvages should be indented, but not those of Burnt Norton and Little Gidding. Many of the lines indented in the Faber edition were not indented in Harcourt, Brace’s equivalent, US 1963. The American edition also failed to insert new line spaces before the final line of Landscapes V. Cape Ann and that of Lines for an Old Man, and these have continued to be absent from American printings.

  In the event, attempts to solve the problem of line-spacing by indenting caused more difficulties than they overcame. There are so many exceptions that satisfactory rules cannot be derived from the practice of either the Penguin or 1963. Consequently, despite the wish Eliot expressed to Robert Beare, the present edition reverts to an arrangement of the poems closer to their appearance in the original Collected Poems (1936), which was used in the planning of 1963 as late as the bound-proof stage. Line spaces which have appeared in or disappeared from different printings are recorded in the Textual History. Variant indentings are usually not recorded. Where they are mentioned, single lines are described as “indented”, whereas passages are described as “inset” (within which individual lines may be further indented).

  Where, in the present edition, a line space is intended at the foot of a page, it is signalled on the page by a marginal chevron (<), the mark Eliot himself sometimes used to indicate line spaces. (Eliot showed his care for the arrangement of his lines in corrections he made on the 1933 proof of Ash-Wednesday III: “I should prefer it if p. 18 could be spaced so as to bring the first “Lord, I am not worthy” onto the top of p. 19.”)

  Double quotation marks cannot be confused with apostrophes, whether as abbreviations, elisions or possessives. They are standard in many British newspapers and in publications such as the Times Literary Supplement as well as throughout American publishing, and are not uncommon in British publishing. They are used here throughout the editorial material and the composite of the drafts of The Waste Land. Within the Commentary their clarity is particularly advantageous. Avoiding the momentary elusiveness of

  1 The golden foot I may not kiss or clutch: Kipling: ‘a-wastin’ Christian kisses on an ’eathen idol’s foot’, Mandalay 14.

  the pointing is immediately clear:

  1 The golden foot I may not kiss or clutch: Kipling: “a-wastin’ Christian kisses on an ’eathen idol’s foot”, Mandalay 14.

  The Textual History likewise records Eliot’s preference for double quotation marks, as manifest in manuscript and typescript.

  The poems themselves are printed with single quotation marks, by the wish of the T. S. Eliot Estate and the publishers.

  Ellipses that are raised · · · indicate an omission editorially introduced in the present edition. Those printed in the ordinary way are from the immediate source. These ellipses may have been in the original wording (Eliot’s “I grow old … I grow old …”), or may have been introduced subsequently (“the sense of rhythm and the sense of structure … The use of recurrent themes is as natural to poetry as to music”: from Eliot, but the ellipsis being John Hayward’s). Occasional occurrences of a fourth stop in ellipses (intended to indicate a completed sentence) have not been retained or collated. Ellipses are rendered as three stops throughout, except when reproduced from OED, where its editorial ellipses have two stops. In quotations within the Commentary, paragraph breaks have not always been noted.

  Because it is significant that, for instance, “Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree” is a new beginning, the line numbering begins again with each new part of a poem (making this II 1). The exception is The Waste Land, where the present edition follows the original continuous numbering introduced in the American first edition by Boni & Liveright, along with the Notes. In this case the part number is provided in square brackets: “Dry bones can harm no one”, [V] 390.

  6. TSE ON TREATMENTS OF HIS POEMS

  Peter du Sautoy of Faber to D. A. F. Sutherland of Collins, 16 Dec 1965, declining to grant permission for an annotated edition of TSE: “We may well be doing annotated editions of the poems ourselves.”

  Eliot: “Our only complaint against both editors [H. Harvey Wood and G. B. Harrison] is that they have conscientiously limited themselves, in their notes, to what is verifiable, and have deprived themselves and their readers of that delight in aside and conjecture which the born annotator exploits”, John Marston (1934). “I pray that during my lifetime someone may bring out an edition, as bulky as Frazer’s Pausanius, which shall give the natural history of the Questing Beast, and the etymology of the names of all the knights and kings. I accept Sir La Cote Male Taile, but what about Sir Marhaus, and Sir Suppinabiles, and King Bagdemagus, and Sir Meliagrance, Sir Lamorak and Sir Persant of Inde?” Le Morte Darthur (1934).

  To Wolf Mankowitz, 20 Oct 1947: “I am averse to the publication of any of my poems with explanatory notes. I should not raise objection to the inclusion of my poems alone in any reputable anthology for the purposes you have in mind, but I cannot give my consent to their publication in an annotated edition.”

  “Good commentaries can be very helpful but to study even the best commentary on a work of literary art is likely to be a waste of time unless we have first read and been excited by the text commented upon even without understanding it”, In Parenthesis (1961), A Note of Introduction.

  To Nancy Cannon, 27 May 1943: “As for the publication of any of my poems in an illustrated edition, this is something to which I have always objected strongly, and although it has once or twice been somewhat embarrassing to refuse friends, I have never made any exception.” (The Ariel Poems, however, were illustrated in their original pamphlet publications. For Gerald Wilde’s lithograph illustrations to Rhapsody on a Windy Night, see headnote to the poem.) To Catherine McCarthy of Harcourt, Brace, 8 July 1947: “I have always been strongly averse to illustrated editions of any of my poems. I can have no objection, of course, to anyone publishing a separate volume or portfolio of illustrations, but I don’t want to give the kind of authorization to anyone’s illustrations which implies my allowing them the text.”

  To Dulcie Bowie, English Verse Speaking Association, 12 Feb 1935: “I have no objection to your using Part 5 of Ash Wednesday for the purpose indicated, if you think fit. As you know, my opinion is that for choral speaking one should have verse written for the purpose, and that to orchestrate a poem like this for a chorus is like setting a piano piece for a full symphony orchestra. I admit, however, that the amount of choral verse to choose from is very limited, and in any case I should not dream of allowing my own views to be an obstacle to your using my verse for any sized choirs that you like.” (For Eliot’s reaction to a semi-dramatised version of The Waste Land, with music, broadcast in 1938, see headnote to the poem, 8. ANTHOLOGIES, TRANSLATIONS, ADAPTATIONS.)

  To Martin Shaw, 18 Oct 1940: “I have your letter of the 15th. You were quite right to have set my piece to music first and asked my permission afterward because I should like you to feel sure that I have no hesitation in giving my consent. On the contrary I am highly pleased. But if you want to publish the music setting with the words, that is a matter of asking permission officially from Faber and Faber.” (When Graham Whettam’s The Wounded Surgeon Plies the Steel, a set
ting of words from East Coker “Printed by permission of T. S. Eliot and Faber & Faber”, turned out to have changed lines of the poem, Eliot protested to the publishers, Boosey & Hawkes, and wrote a memo to Peter du Sautoy, 22 Dec 1960, saying “I am furious about this.”)

  To Eleanor Follansbee von Erffa, 10 July 1944: “As you ask me, I should definitely prefer that you should call the ballet The Fisher King (a good title, too). I feel that I ought not to obstruct anyone who is inspired by any of my poetry to make a ballet (and am a great lover of the Ballet anyway). I am anxious always that it should be clear that I do not associate myself with any particular interpretation of the poem, and that I took no part in the transformation. The question is the more serious, as there is someone here also who wishes to make a ballet: and if I authorise one, I must authorise both on the same terms. I take the same view about illustrations to my poems: while I consider any artist free to interpret the poems into his visual art, and to publish the illustrations if he can, I will not allow any illustrated edition of the text, or express particular approval of one interpretation rather than another.”

  To Dale E. Fern, 20 Mar 1947: “But as for a sort of ballet, which I imagine is what you mean by a choreographic setting of the Dry Salvages, it simply makes my stomach turn over. There are two things to which I have a strong dislike. One is the publication of any of my poems as a picture book with illustrations, and the other is ballets inspired by anything I have written. I cannot possibly conceive any such ballet having any relation to the poem except the title. Please do anything else you like but don’t do this.”

  To Joseph Vogel, 31 Mar 1947: “while I appreciate the interest in my poetry which prompts you to make a short film of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, I am obliged to tell you that I am strongly averse to having any of my non-dramatic writing adapted for the screen or used as a basis for any screen work.”

  To the Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and Francis Turner, 9 Nov 1962:

  From time to time I have been approached by composers who have set to music poems or sections of poems of mine which I do not wish to have set to music and who have done so before making enquiries of me or of Faber and Faber · · · My permission in the past has always been given for more lyrical passages such as Section four of each of my Four Quartets, short lyrical passages such as those which are entitled Landscapes and an occasional chorus from The Rock for use on some religious occasion. For instance, Stravinsky, with my full permission and encouragement, has set Section four of my poem Little Gidding to music, but Ash Wednesday is a different matter altogether; it does not seem at all suitable for the purpose. I hope you will see that my firmness on this point is not wholly unreasonable. If I gave permission even once for publication of my text with a musical setting, I should find it almost impossible to resist leaving the whole of my verse to the disposal of composers.

  With the publication of my own verse I have always been firm on three points. First, I will not allow any artist to illustrate my poems. Second, I will not allow any academic critic (and there are plenty of these in America only too willing) to provide notes of explanation to be published with any of my poems. Third, I will not allow any of my poems to be set to music unless they seem to me to be lyrics in the proper sense of being suitable for singing. My objection to all three of these methods of employing my works is the same, that I should be allowing interpretation of the poem to be interposed between me and my readers. An artist is providing the illustrations which should be left to the imagination of the reader, the commentator is providing information which stands between the reader and any immediate response in of his sensibility, and the music also is a particular interpretation which is also interposed between the reader and the author. I want my readers to get their impressions from the words alone and from nothing else.

  Acknowledgements

  This edition has been made possible by those who recognised Eliot’s genius and treasured and preserved his writings, particularly his mother, Charlotte; his brother, Henry; Ezra Pound; John Hayward; and Valerie Eliot. We have been very fortunate to have been preparing this edition with the blessing of Valerie Eliot (who died in 2012) and of the T. S. Eliot Estate.

  The editors are grateful to a number of individuals and estates for use of their material. Though it has not, due to the number and diversity of the sources, been possible to treat each citation individually, thanks are due to Dr Henry Oakeley and Auriol Chisholm for permission to include published and unpublished material by John Hayward; and to Faber & Faber and the Faber Archive, for material by Geoffrey Faber, Stephen Spender and Charles Williams.

  Also reproduced is previously unpublished material, including letters and manuscript annotations, by Ezra Pound: copyright © 2015 by Mary de Rachewiltz and the Estate of Omar S. Pound; published letters by Ezra Pound, from Selected Letters 1907–1941 Of Ezra Pound, copyright © 1950 by Ezra Pound; excerpts by Ezra Pound published in journals, literary magazines, etc., copyright © 1991 by the Trustees of the Ezra Pound Literary Property Trust; excerpts from from Literary Essays of Ezra Pound, copyright © 1935 by Ezra Pound and from Pavannes & Divagations copyright © 1958 by New Directions Publishing Corp. All of these are reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

  The drawing by David Jones from The Cultivation of Christmas Trees is reproduced by permission of Nicholas Elkin; the “Bolo” drawing by T. S. Eliot from a letter to Bonamy Dobrée is reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, Leeds University Library (BC ms 20c Dobrée); the drawings illustrating Five-Finger Exercises IV and V are reproduced by permission of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; the drawing by Margaret Wolpe is reproduced by permission of Deborah Wolpe.

  The editors are also grateful for the support of the Mellon Foundation; the Arts and Humanities Research Council; the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge; the Institute of English Studies, University of London; and Boston University, particularly the Editorial Institute.

  The bibliography of Eliot by Donald Gallup remains indispensable, eighty years after he began work on its first embodiment as A Catalogue of English and American First Editions of Writings by T. S. Eliot for an exhibition at Yale in 1937. The bibliography is being updated by Archie Henderson.

  We are especially indebted to Jennifer Formichelli, Ben Mazer and Allison Vanouse, who helped to check the Commentary and Textual History, and to Shawn Worthington, who undertook much research and compiled the index to the edition. Our copy editor, Donald Sommerville, has saved us from many errors, added to our knowledge and been exceptional for his pertinacity and patience. This book was designed by Paul Luna in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading. It was set in types designed by Fred Smeijers: a special version of Arnhem Fine for Eliot’s poetry and Arnhem Pro for the remainder of the text.

  Thanks partly to the widespread love of Eliot, not only colleagues and friends but many who were previously unknown to us have also been most generous with their time and knowledge. With apologies to anyone we have inadvertently omitted, we should like to thank:

  David Addyman, Catherine Ahearn, Michael Alexander, William Arrowsmith, Alp Atabay, Rowley Atterbury, Joseph Baillargeon, Elena Baranes, John Barnard, Marvin Bensman, Matthew Bevis, Chelsea Bingham, Ann Bird, W. H. Bizley, John Bodley, Andrew Boxer, Owen Boynton, David Bradshaw, Laurence Breiner, Charlotte Brewer, Catherine Brown, Ian Brunskill, Archie Burnett, Ronald Bush, Mark Byron, Katherine Calver, Brian and Genie Casey, Peter Chasseaud, Ted Cheers, Carol Clark, Keith Clements, David Coleman, Constantine Contogenis, Connie Contogenis and Clio Contogenis, Eleanor Cook, Bonnie Costello, David Crystal, Robert Dagg, Roy Davids, Ben de la Mare, Giles de la Mare, James Dempsey, Christie Dennis, Rodney Dennis, Frances Dickey, Jeremy Dibble, Martin Dodsworth, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Peter Doyle, Trevor Dunmore, Lauren Eckenroth, Paul Edwards, Michael Elliott, Pat Fenteman, Anne Ferry, David Ferry, Philip Finkelpearl, Carol Fitzgerald, Stephen and Mary Jo Foley, Chri
stopher H. Freeble, Arthur Freeman, Donald Gallup, Matthew Geary, Henry Gott, Warwick Gould, James Griffin, Eric Griffiths, John Gross, Jeffrey Gutierrez, John Haffenden, R. F. Hall, Vanessa Hall-Smith, Paul Hartle, Kenneth Haynes, Thomas Healey, Archie Henderson, Anne Holmes, Philip Horne, Rob House, Mark Hruby, Richard Humphreys, Bruce Hunt, Clare Hutton, Christoph Irmscher, Steven Isenberg, Manju Jaidka, Iman Javadi, Roger Johnson, Marcia Karp, Richard Kaye, Charlotte King, Stephen Krishnan, Jonas Kurlberg, Barbara Lauriat, Stephen Layton, Philip and Sally Le Brocq, Hermione Lee, Ronald Levao, Eliot Levin, A. Walton Litz, Peter Lockley, William Logan, James Longenbach, James Loucks, Richard Luckett, Oliver Lyne, John Lyon, Ann McCue, Betty McCue, Kenneth Mcnab, Jane Mansbridge, Jérôme Martin, Dave Mason, David Matthews, Jeremy Maule, Ben Mazer, Edward Mendelson, Silke Mentchen, Elizabeth Micakovic, Tim Miller, Stephanie Nelson, Christopher Ohge, Lee Oser, Graham Parker, Ian Patterson, April Pierce, Adrian Poole, Michael Prince, Lawrence Rainey, Claude Rawson, Cal Revely-Calder, Jonathan Ribner, David Ricks, Angelo Righetti, John Paul Riquelme, Paul Robert, Wallace Robson, Lisa Rodensky, Peter Sacks, Cliff Saxton, Ronald Schuchard, Sanford Schwartz, Roger Shattuck, Susan Shaw, Abner Shimony, Alyn Shipton, Eric Sigg, John R. Silber, George Simmers, Abby Love Smith, Grover Smith, Oliver Soden, Richard Sorabji, Natasha Spender, Robert Spoo, Jon Stallworthy, Jayme Stayer, Anne Stillman, Christopher Stray, Kendon Stubbs, Michael F. Suarez, Peter Swaab, Eleanor Talbot, Nigel Tattersfield, Mark Thompson, Roger E. Thompson, Jeanne Tift, Kit Toda, Angela Todd, Gail Trimble, Mike Truax, Ana Urrutia-Jordana, William L. Vance, Julian Walker, Philip Warner, William Waters, Louise Watts, E. S. C. Weiner, Jon Westling, Clive Westwood-Dunkley, Frances Whistler, Kieron Winn, Susan Wolfson, Henry Woudhuysen, William Zachs.