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TRANSCRIPT
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Tracking the Changes ofThe Waste Landfrom Manuscript to
Masterpiece
Introduction
T.S. Eliots The Waste Land is considered by many critics to be the poets
masterpiece. Being regarded in such high esteem presents readers whom are
first encountering the poem with a problem; as Rainey said, The poem is
preceded by its reputation, endowed with authority so monumental that a reader
is tempted to overlook the poem itself, i It is my intention, in the course of this
essay to make the poem itself the focal point, and in doing so closely detail the
changes that occur between Eliots original draft manuscript and that which exists
today, as well as stating my own opinions regarding Ezra pounds editing of the
original manuscript. In order to formulate my own opinions on this matter it will be
necessary, to an extent, to consider the finished poem in the context of its critical
reception.
On the 22nd of January 1922 Thomas Stearns Eliot arrived in Paris. He had with
him a collection of drafts and fragments for, what would eventually become, The
Waste Land. Eliot had composed the pieces that made up this collection over,
largely, the previous eleven months though some have been dated back to his
days at Harvard, namely, After the turning, So through the evening and I am
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allusions to seasonal death and rebirth. The parts of the poem are entitled thus:
I. The Burial of the Dead, II. A Game of Chess, II. The Fire Sermon, IV. Death
by Water and V. What the Thunder Said. In order to closely detail changes
between the manuscript and finished poem I will be referencing two separate
volumes: for the pre Pound manuscript I will be using T.S. Eliots, The Waste
Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Draftsv, Ed. Valerie Eliot
(London:
Faber and Faber Ltd., 1971) hereafter referred to as FT; for the post Pound
manuscript I will be using T.S.Eliots The Annotated Waste Land with Eliots
Contemporary Prose 2nd Editionvi, Ed. Lawrence Rainey (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2006) hereafter referred to as AWL.
I. The Burial of the Dead
In the FT manuscript this opening part of the poem commences, not with the
familiar April is the cruellest month, breeding (AWL, page 57), but rather with the
depiction of a drunken night out in Boston; which opens with the line,
First we had a couple of feelers down at Toms place (FT, page 5)
According to the editorial note of the FT Pounds annotations are printed in red,
and Vivien Eliots [Eliots first wife] contributions are in black type with cancelled
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broken line. (FT, page xxxii ). The fifty four lines that which make up this episode
have been cancelled out with a single black line, which suggests that Eliot
omitted this section himself. The critic Gilbert Seldes wrote on publication ofThe
Waste Landthat:
It is specifically concerned with the idea of the Waste Land that the land
was fruitful and now is not, that life had been rich, beautiful, assured,
organised, lofty and is now dragging itself out in a poverty stricken and
disruptful and ugly tedium, without health and with no consolation in
morality.vii
The section of Burial that Eliot omitted, though containing ideas in opposition to
Seldes expressed opinion, namely that consolation could be found in immorality,
implied by the visit to the brothel,
Get me a woman, I said: youre too drunk, she said (FT, page 5)
The rejection of the mans custom by the madam suggests that there is no
consolation to be found in immoral behaviour after all; the rejection due to
inebriation also signifies the temporary nature of the mans impotency. The final
line of this rejected section So I go out to see the sunrise, and walked home.
(FT, page 5) carries with it the perpetual metaphor of re-birth; the rising Sun.
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With each sunrise a new day is born, and, in the case of the speaker in this
section, the previous nights drunken antics are in the past and its effects will
wear off. One of the prevalent themes in The Waste Land is the idea of
degeneration and rebirth, in having these to themes so fully encapsulated in this
section it is my opinion that had it remained in the final draft of the poem it would
have detracted from the effect of the poem as a whole. Given that he did not ask
Eliot to reinstate this fragment into the poem, Pound was possibly of the same, or
similar, opinion.
In turning to look at the more familiar start to Burial,
April is the cruellest month, breeding (AWL, page 57)
it can be seen that Pound has made very few editorial changes and suggestions
to this fragment. OF the changes he did suggest it is clear that Eliot was in
disagreement with some; Pound in the FT highlights the word forgetful from line
60 ( FT, page 7 )and in a similar manner highlights there you feel free( FT, line
71 page 7). What can be inferred from the unchanged nature of these lines in
the AWL text is that, not only was Eliot happy with them but that they contributed
to the symbolism of the poem. Marie associates the snow with her childhood,
saying that it covered the barren Winter ground, in essence causing her to forget
what lay under the snow; alongside this she associates the feeling of freedom to
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snow due to having gone sledging. Her allusion to this incident form her
childhood suggests that she feels trapped in her current life, and also projects a
desire to forget herself. The snow links these lines together and to remove one
would have caused the relationship and association they portray to have been
lost. Another change Pound suggests for this section is the removal of the line
(These are pears that were his eyes. Look!) (FT, line 101 page 7), Eliot again
elects to keep this line as it was written; presumably because it foreshadows the
Death by Water part of the poem.
Until now it would appear that Eliot has, for the greater part, not acted in
accordance with Pounds suggestions, however, line 108 from the FT manuscript
is written as Which I am forbidden to see, I look in vain (FT page 9) appears in
the AWL as Which I am forbidden to see, I do not find (AWL, line 54 page 59 ).
Pound had highlighted the end of this line in the FT and Eliot evidently saw fit to
change it. With no notes detailing the reason for this change, I would suggest
that it was largely for contextual reasons. This line relates to Madam Sosostris
conducting a tarot card reading: the Tarot by definition is a set of seventy eight
playing cards, from which the modern fifty two card deck was derived. The Tarot
deck originated in fourteenth century Italy as a twenty two card deck containing
twenty one numbered cards and one joker, these cards were representative of
natural elements and virtues and vices; these were then combined with fifty six
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number cards broken down into four suits of fourteen, these represented the
nobility, clergy, merchants and peasants. The cards, as the poem suggests,
were, and still are used or fortune telling; and as such cards cannot be looked
for as the FT draft suggests, but are either revealed by fate or not at all. Eliot
himself admitted to taking liberties with regards to the tarot, I am not familiar with
the exact constitution, form which I have departed to suit my own
convenience.(AWL, page 71) With this admission in mind we can see that
Pounds editing made the context and methodology of Tarot accurate, although
the cards were not.
In considering the entirety of the poem it becomes evident that Pound did not
appreciate much of the religious references that Eliot had weaved amongst the
text, given that he suggested cutting the majority of it form the manuscript. The
first of this religious excision can be seen in Burial. In this section Pound
suggests that the line, (I John saw these things, and heard them) (FT, line 110
page 9). The editorial notes of the FT reveal that he John referred to in this line is
St. John the Devine, apostle of Jesus Christ whom is credited with authorship of
the fourth gospel (FT page 126). If this line had remained in the poem it would
have served to strengthen the religious imagery already present, being that it
was a direct reference to the New Testament. In his piece on TheWaste Land
manuscript Lyndall Gordon suggests that the removal of much of the religious
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aspects from the poem was not something that Eliot fully supported, Gordon
states; During the twenties Eliots uneasiness was confirmed by misreadings of
The Waste Land. He was irritated to be hailed as the spokesman for that
generation, when it fastened so hungrily on his disillusion and erudition, it ignored
the fact that they were subsidiary to a religious vision.viii
The last stanza of the The Burial of the Dead contains changes which illustrate
how Pounds editing of The Waste Land was influenced by his own views on
poetry. Here Pound alters the lines,
Unreal city, I have sometimes seen and see
Under the brown fog of your winter dawn (FT, line 115 116, page 9)
These lines appear in the AWL as,
Unreal City
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn (AWL, line 60-61, page 59)
In removing the last part of the original line Pound is removing words which are
extraneous to the poems presentation. The removal of unnecessary words is one
of the principles concerning poetry that Pound set forth in his critical essay A
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In this, the second part of the poem, the reader observes to women: the first the
reader can infer from the description of luxurious surroundings, is wealthy; the
second LIl is referred to indirectly but the locality of the reference, a public
house, is suggestive of the fact that Lil is of a lower social class than the first
lady, whom many consider to be the Mrs Equitone that Madam Sosotris refers
to in The Burial of the Dead.
Pounds main editorial criticisms of this section of the poem suggest that he felt
Eliot was wasting words and using the metre of iambic pentameter too frequently;
one of the remarks he makes on the page is, 3 lines Too tum-pum at a stretch
(FT, page 11) the three lines he refers to include the description of the chair that
Mrs Equitone is sitting in, suggesting that the description was overlong.
Similarly, lines 15 to 23 of the FT manuscript have been highlighted and any
words that act to introduce, as it were, a new part of the room have been scored
through by Pounds red ink: Upon the hearth, which were and but so lively, you
had thought are all recommended to be discarded. Eliot clearly agreed with
Pound as these lines do not appear in the text of the AWL. In cutting these
suggested words Eliot also corrects the other main criticism Pound had of this
fragment, namely that it was too penty. One must again wonder how much
Pound is enforcing his own views on poetry on to Eliots work in light of these
suggestions, given that the removal of unnecessary words is one of his key
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principles of poetry and that another is; regarding rhythm to compose in the
sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome. xi Edmund
Wilson wrote in 1922 that,
Mr Eliot is a poet that is, he feels intensely and with distinction and
speaks naturally in beautiful verseHis verse is sometimes much too
scrappy he does not dwell long enough on one idea to give it its
proportionate value before passing on to the next but these drops,
though they be wrung form flint, are none the less authentic crystals.xii
The description of Eliots verse as scrappy is in this case not derogatory, but
rather a desire for more of it. In relation to the Mrs Equitone section of A Game
of Chess the fuller description originally written by Eliot may have been more
fitting than the edited version that was published. This section of the poem
contains much of the same tone as Eliots unpublished poem The Death of The
Duchess (FT page), this poem describes a couple who are no longer able to
communicate; the husband wishes to escape through the door and the wife can
only signify her desire for affection through the continual brushing of her hair.
(Gordon, page In taking more time to describe the beauty of the womans setting
in A Game of Chess Eliot would have provided a greater contrast
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between the setting and the awkward relationship between the woman and her
visitor.
The second part of A Game of Chess concerning the story of Lil contains only
one major editorial suggestion form Pound. From the text of the FT it is clear that
Eliot was having trouble finding an appropriate ending to line 65, having originally
written, coming out of the Transport Corps he then wrote above it Discharge out
of the army?? (FT, page13) suggesting that though he was unhappy with the line
he could think of no suitable alternative. Pound furnishes him with the necessary
word, demobbed, here there is no need for elaborate description, the speaker is
of a lower social class and in being so the colloquial demobbed is an
appropriate choice.
This second part ofThe Waste Landis significant to the poem as it reveals more
clearly the state of impotency that the waste land is in; marriages are failing and
women are becoming as barren as the landscape.
III. The Fire Sermon
Looking at the FT manuscript of The Fire Sermon in comparison with the AWL
text it is immediately evident that this section of the poem underwent massive
editorial changes. In the first draft of this part of the poem Eliot chose to begin
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they seem to describe the same feelings that Eliot has already portrayed in
earlier parts of the poem, albeit more indirectly.
In the next part of The Fire Sermon there is vast evidence of Pound excising
unnecessary words and recommendations on the form of the poem. In the FT
manuscript Eliot had originally written out lines 121 188 as verse constructed of
four line stanzas, in verse form this section amounts to a total of seventeen
stanzas: Pound comments that this, verse [is] not interesting enough as verse to
warrant so much of it (FT, page 45) The main focus in this section is Tiresiuss
observations of the typist, and as such the stanzas which provide description of
her lover are unnecessary, the description of her lover in the AWL text, though
much shorter, is successful in portraying a man who is unattractive in both
physical looks and manners: He, the young man carbuncular, arrives (AWL, line
231 page 64), carbuncles being a bacterial infection of the skin resulting in large
pustules.
As well as cutting much of the descriptive stanzas from this fragment of The Fire
Sermon Pound also cuts out lines 137 to 140 (FT, page 43-45) of the FT draft of
this fragment, stating that the description of the typists home furnishings is at
odds with her accommodation with the comment ?not in that lodging house? (FT
page 45)
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A bright kimono wraps her as she sprawls
In nerveless torpor on the window seat;
A touch of art s given by the false
Japanese print, purchased in Oxford Street. (FT, lines 137 140 page 45)
Further criticisms that Pound makes of this section are suggestive of the fact that
Pound felt that Eliot wasnt being as decisive and certain in his writing as he
should be; Pound highlights the word perhaps on page 45 of the FT,
Perhaps his inclinations touch the stage (FT, line 151 page 45)
And note in the margins regarding this that, Perhaps be damned. Similarly
Pound highlights may from page 47 of the FT,
Across her brain one half formed thought may pass (FT, line183 page 47)
Pound writes of this word choice make up yr. mind you Tiresias if you know
know damn well or else you dont (FT, page 47). Eliot responds to this criticism
by cutting the first example of this uncertainty, and redrafting the second to stop it
from being ambivalent. If these uncertainties had remained within the final text of
The Waste Landit would have discredited Tiresius as a speaker, and given that
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he is representative of the character whom is moving through this waste land;
Tiresius is a single entity, neither male nor female, caught between both sexes,
this would greatly have affected critical readings of the poem. The last section of
The Fire Sermon remains largely untouched by Pounds editorial pen, he does
suggest that Eliot type out lines 1-11 of the Highbury bore me (FT page 51)
fragment that he [Eliot] cut out. However, it is unlikely that Eliot did this as there
is no typescript copy this fragment within the manuscript and it is not in the text of
the AWL.
The Fire Sermon is a significant part of The Waste Land as it refers to The
Fisher King of Miss Westons book From Ritual to Romance, a source that Eliot
wrote was of great inspiration to him. In addition to this the title of this part of the
poem also references the Buddhist religion, The Fire Sermon is a reference to a
sermon by Siddhartha Gautama, called Buddha by his followers. In this sermon
he addresses his priest saying; All things, O priests are on fire. And what, O
priests are these tings which are on fire?...With the fire of passion, say I, with the
fire of hatred, with the fire of infatuation; with old age, death, sorrow, lamentation,
misery grief and despair are they on fire. (AWL, pages 99-100). This section of
the poem is representative of much of the fires in the Buddhist sermon, further
in this sermon Buddha states that in conceiving this aversion [to the senses], he
becomes divested of passion, and in the absence of passion, he becomes aware
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that he is free; and he knows that rebirth is exhausted, (AWL, page 100). This
sermon suggests that only with death can we be reborn: in relation to Eliots
writing ofThe Waste Landhe could be suggesting that only with the death of his
own personal despair will he be reborn.
Death by Water and What the Thunder Said
I include these two sections of the poem together as, for the most part, the
editorial changes that take place within them cannot be analysed in the same
way that those previous to them. Death by Water in the FT appears to have
largely fallen on Pounds cutting room floor, and the untitled fragment that would
become What the Thunder Said contains only grammatical and typing
corrections and is given the verdict OK OK from here on I think(FT, page 71)
from Pound.
The introduction to the AWL does provide minor insight into the editing of Death
by Water. In a letter to Scofield Thayer to offer him the first publication of the
poem Eliot wrote ofThe Waste Land that it was a poem in four parts; he was
intending to publish the poem without part IV. Pound wrote to Eliot on this matter
stating his opinion that I do advise keeping Phlebas. In fact I moren advise.
Phlebas is an integral part of the poem; the card pack introduces him, the
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drowned Phoen. Sailor, and he is needed absoloootly where he is. Must stay in.
(AWL, page 25) The vehement insistence by Pound that these lines stay in with
the argument that the card pack introduces him is suggestive of the fact that
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Pound cut the 82 lines previous to the 10 that constitute 'Death by Water in the
AWL because he felt them unnecessary as the character had already been
introduced in an earlier part of the poem.
Eliot wrote in his essay Tradition and the Individual Talent that the writing of
poetry requires the poet to
continual[ly] surrender himself as he is at the moment to something which
is more valuable. The progress of an artist isxiii a continual self-sacrifice, a
continual extinction of personalitythe more perfect the artist, the more
completely separate in him will be the man who suffers and the mind
which createsThe intensity of the poetry is something quite different
from whatever intensity in the supposed experience it may give the
impression ofxiv
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In asking Pound to edit The Waste Landit is my opinion that Eliot was subjecting
himself to this self-sacrifice. Having read both the finished text of The Waste
Landand the original nineteen page manuscript, I do have a preference towards
the final text. However, this said, I am also of the opinion that Pound inflicted too
much of is own style onto the poem and, though Pound would cut this word from
this essay were he here, perhaps it would not have been clearer to the reader
and less fragmented had some of the narrative tracts cut by Pound remained in
the final draft.
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i Lawrence Rainey, Introduction, T.S. Eliot, The Annotated Waste Land 2ndEdition, Ed. Lawrence Rainey (YaleUniversity Press, Pennsylvania United States of America,2006) page 2ii Rainey, page 23iii Rainey, page 7ivThe Norton Anthology of American Literature, 5th Edition, Volume , Ed. Julie Reidhead, (W.W. Norton &Company, New York United States of America,1998) page 1368 - 1369v T.S.Eliot, The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts, Ed. Valerie Eliot (Faber and FaberLtd., London, 1971) page numbers for quotations used in brackets after quotation.vi T.S. Eliot, The Annotated Waste Land 2ndEdition, Ed. Lawrence Rainey (Yale University Press, PennsylvaniaUnited States of America,2006) page numbers for quotations used appear in brackets after the quotationvii Gilbert Seldes, T.S.Eliot Nation Vol. cxv pages 614-16 in T.S. Eliot The Critical Heritage Volume 1, Ed.Michael Grant, (Routledge & Keegan Paul Ltd., London, 1981) page 144viii Lyndall Gordon The Waste Land Manuscript,American Literature, Vol. 45, No. 4(Jan 1974) page569-70ix Ezra Pound, A Retrospect, viewed on 20th
February 2009x Gordon, page 559xi Pound, A Retrospectxii Edmund Wilson, The Poetry of Drouth, Dial, Vol. lxxiii, pages 611-16 in T.S .Eliot The Critical HeritageVolume 1, Ed. Michael Grant, (Routledge & Keegan Paul Ltd., London, 1981) page 143xiii
xiv T.S. Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent < http://articles.poetryx.com/51/> viewed on 27th February 2009
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources
Eliot, T.S. The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts, Ed. Valerie Eliot(Faber and Faber Ltd., London, 1971)
Eliot, T.S. The Annotated Waste Land 2ndEdition, Ed. Lawrence Rainey (Yale UniversityPress, Pennsylvania United States of America,2006)
Secondary Sources
Gordon, Lyndall The Waste Land Manuscript,American Literature, Vol. 45, No. 4(Jan 1974)
Rainey Lawrence, Introduction, T.S. Eliot, The Annotated Waste Land 2ndEdition, Ed.Lawrence Rainey (Yale University Press, Pennsylvania United States of America,2006)
Seldes, Gilbert T. S. Eliot Nation Vol. cxv pages 614-16 in T. S. Eliot: The Critical HeritageVolume 1, Ed. Michael Grant, (Routledge & Keegan Paul Ltd., London, 1981)
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The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 5th Edition, Volume , Ed. Julie Reidhead, (W.W.Norton & Company, New York United States of America,1998) page 1368 - 1369
Wilson, Edmund, The Poetry of Drouth, Dial, Vol. lxxiii, pages 611-16 in T.S.Eliot The CriticalHeritage Volume 1, Ed. Michael Grant, (Routledge & Keegan Paul Ltd., London, 1981)
Eliot, T.S, Tradition and the Individual Talent< http://articles.poetryx.com/51/> viewed on 27th February 2009
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Pound, Ezra, A Retrospect, viewed on 20th February2009