| Eyes That Last I Saw In Tears Eyes that last I saw in tears Through division Here in death's dream kingdom The golden vision reappears I see the eyes but not the tears That is my affliction This is my affliction Eyes I will not see again Eyes of decision Eyes I shall not see unless At the door of death's other kingdom Where, as in this, The eyes outlast a little while A little while outlast the tears And hold us in derision. |
| T. S. Eliot |
| Eliot's another one of those that gets overtaught in English classes...and that i like anyways...This first poem, "Eyes That Last I Saw in Tears", is so haunting, I've thought it over and over, never really understanding but being captivated nonetheless. Under it are two verses from "The Waste Land"; they don't come consecutively in the poem, and i would really recommend that you read the whole thing at some point. It's amazing. There is a really cool annotated hypertext version online: . Although "The Waste Land" is pretty long, it's totally worth it. |
| What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only There is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under this red rock), And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust. |
| from The Waste Land, 1922: |
| After the torchlight red on sweaty faces After the frosty silence in the gardens After the agony in stony places The shouting and the crying Prison and palace and reverberation Of thunder of spring over distant mountains He who was living is now dead We who were living are now dying With a little patience |