| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: These fragments I have shored against my ruins 430
Why then Ile fit you. Hieronymo's mad againe.
Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Shantih shantih shantih
Line 415 aetherial] aethereal
Line 428 ceu] uti -- Editor
NOTES
Not only the title, but the plan and a good deal of the
incidental symbolism of the poem were suggested
by Miss Jessie L. Weston's book on the Grail legend:
_From Ritual to Romance_ (Macmillan).<1> Indeed,
The Waste Land |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: town before could go and hunt that place over and find
that brick, but Tom Sawyer done it. I know he done
it, because I see him do it. I was right by his very
side at the time, and see him see the brick and see him
reconnize it. Well, I says to myself, how DOES he do
it? Is it knowledge, or is it instink?
Now there's the facts, just as they happened: let
everybody explain it their own way. I've ciphered
over it a good deal, and it's my opinion that some of it
is knowledge but the main bulk of it is instink. The
reason is this: Tom put the brick in his pocket to give
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: with an air of philosophic leisure, everyone was moving
to and fro and exchanging loud and familiar observations.
Eventually, at the instance of a discriminating black,
our young men went and had some "supper" in a wonderful
place arranged like a theater, where, in a gilded gallery,
upon which little boxes appeared to open, a large orchestra
was playing operatic selections, and, below, people were
handing about bills of fare, as if they had been programs.
All this was sufficiently curious; but the agreeable thing, later,
was to sit out on one of the great white decks of the steamer,
in the warm breezy darkness, and, in the vague starlight,
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: little child!" And then, in a horrified whisper to himself, "I
am a wretch! A criminal!"
"Madame," said the doctor, "you must calm yourself; you must both
calm yourselves. You will not help out the situation by
lamentations. You must learn to take it with calmness."
Madame Dupont set her lips together, and with a painful effort
recovered her self-control. "You are right, sir," she said, in a
low voice. "I ask your pardon; but if you only knew what that
child means to me! I lost one at that age. I am an old woman, I
am a widow--I had hardly hoped to live long enough to be a
grandmother. But, as you say--we must be calm." She turned to
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