#that he was happiest before he came to think of her as vulgar & resented himself for wanting her
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Visit Tumblr Blog
Explore Tumblr blogs with no restrictions, modern design and the best experience.
Last Seen Tumblr Blogs
Fun Fact
Tumblr.com is the 103rd most visited website in the world.
Text
A Cooking Egg by T.S. Eliot
En l'an trentiesme de mon aage Que toutes mes hontes j'ay beues
Pipit sate upright in her chair Some distance from where I was sitting; Views of the Oxford Colleges Lay on the table, with the knitting.
Daguerreotypes and silhouettes, Her grandfather and great great aunts, Supported on the mantelpiece An Invitation to the Dance.
. . . . .
I shall not want Honour in Heaven For I shall meet Sir Philip Sidney And have talk with Coriolanus And other heroes of that kidney.
I shall not want Capital in Heaven For I shall meet Sir Alfred Mond: We two shall lie together, lapt In a five per cent Exchequer Bond.
I shall not want Society in Heaven, Lucretia Borgia shall be my Bride; Her anecdotes will be more amusing Than Pipit's experience could provide.
I shall not want Pipit in Heaven: Madame Blavatsky will instruct me In the Seven Sacred Trances; Piccarda de Donati will conduct me …
. . . . .
But where is the penny world I bought To eat with Pipit behind the screen? The red-eyed scavengers are creeping From Kentish Town and Golder's Green;
Where are the eagles and the trumpets?
Buried beneath some snow-deep Alps. Over buttered scones and crumpets Weeping, weeping multitudes Droop in a hundred A.B.C.'s.
#this poem is from the same era as prufrock but isn’t as well known#it's a shame because i could talk about it for hours#once you've read and explicated it within a framework of literary & historical & biographical context you can have fun interpreting it#sometimes i'll read it with trans goggles on#works like syncing dark side of the moon to the wizard of oz#it's not just about the title--the narrator is somebody who is indefinitely postponing transition. the inanity of hatching into a dull bird#he is assuring himself that when he dies none of it will matter. he won't feel ugly or lonely or bored or stupid#but the dismissal of pipit and her simplicity pivots into the bittersweet realization that he's given her up for nothing.#that he was happiest before he came to think of her as vulgar & resented himself for wanting her#the world will end all the same and all he'll ever have is joylessness and the absence of pipit#t.s. eliot#poetry#i read much of the night and go south in the winter
28 notes
·
View notes