An excerpt from
The Wasteland, which has a strange aptness this week.
| "Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante, | |
| Had a bad cold, nevertheless | |
| Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, | 45 |
| With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she, | |
| Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor, | |
| (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!) | |
| Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks, | |
| The lady of situations. | 50 |
| Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel, | |
| And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card, | |
| Which is blank, is something he carries on his back, | |
| Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find | |
| The Hanged Man. Fear death by water. | 55 |
| I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring. | |
| Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone, | |
| Tell her I bring the horoscope myself: | |
| One must be so careful these days." |
But these are not, in fact, my favorite lines of this poem. My favorite lines are the following:
| "She turns and looks a moment in the glass, | |
| Hardly aware of her departed lover; | 250 |
| Her brain allows one half-formed thought to pass: | |
| 'Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over.' | |
| When lovely woman stoops to folly and | |
| Paces about her room again, alone, | |
| She smoothes her hair with automatic hand, | 255 |
| And puts a record on the gramophone." |
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