T.S. Eliot book Poems
"Whispers of Immortality"; "Grishkin" has been identified by Ezra Pound as having been "Serafima Astafieva" a Russian dancer.
Poems (1920)
“Weave the wind. I have no ghosts,
An old man in a draughty house
Under a windy knob.”
T.S. Eliot book Poems
"Gerontion"
Poems (1920)
“Here I am, an old man in a dry month,
Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain.”
T.S. Eliot book Poems
"Gerontion"
Poems (1920)
“Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin”
T.S. Eliot book Poems
"Whispers of Immortality"
Poems (1920)
“After such knowledge, what forgiveness?”
T.S. Eliot book Poems
"Gerontion"
Poems (1920)
Context: After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now
History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors
And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,
Guides us by vanities. Think now
She gives when our attention is distracted
And what she gives, gives with such supple confusions
That the giving famishes the craving. Gives too late
What's not believed in, or if still believed,
In memory only, reconsidered passion. Gives too soon
Into weak hands, what's thought can be dispensed with
Till the refusal propagates a fear. Think
Neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices
Are fathered by our heroism. Virtues
Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.
These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.
T.S. Eliot book Poems
"Gerontion"
Poems (1920)
Context: After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think now
History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors
And issues, deceives with whispering ambitions,
Guides us by vanities. Think now
She gives when our attention is distracted
And what she gives, gives with such supple confusions
That the giving famishes the craving. Gives too late
What's not believed in, or if still believed,
In memory only, reconsidered passion. Gives too soon
Into weak hands, what's thought can be dispensed with
Till the refusal propagates a fear. Think
Neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices
Are fathered by our heroism. Virtues
Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.
These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.
“Signs are taken for wonders. “We would see a sign!””
T.S. Eliot book Poems
The word within a word, unable to speak a word,
Swaddled with darkness.
"Gerontion"
Poems (1920)
