Excerpt from The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot

Aug 17, 2006 00:07



And other withered stumps of time   Were told upon the walls; staring forms   Leaned out, leaning, hushing the room enclosed.   Footsteps shuffled on the stair.   Under the firelight, under the brush, her hair   Spread out in fiery points   Glowed into words, then would be savagely still.
  'My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.   'Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.   'What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?   'I never know what you are thinking. Think.'     I think we are in rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones.     'What is that noise?'                         The wind under the door.   'What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?'                         Nothing again nothing.                                                 'Do   'You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember   'Nothing?'     I remember   Those are pearls that were his eyes.   'Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?'                                                            But   O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag-   It's so elegant   So intelligent   'What shall I do now? What shall I do?'   'I shall rush out as I am, and walk the street   'With my hair down, so. What shall we do to-morrow?   'What shall we ever do?'                             The hot water at ten.   And if it rains, a closed car at four.   And we shall play a game of chess,   Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.
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