THE FIRE SERMON

  The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf
  Clutch and sink into the wet bank.
 The wind
  Crosses the brown land, unheard.
 The nymphs are departed.

  Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.

  The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
  Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
  Or other testimony of summer nights.
 The nymphs are departed.

  And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;               180
  Departed, have left no addresses.


  Line 161 ALRIGHT.
 This spelling occurs also in
  the Hogarth Press edition— Editor.


  By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept .
 .
 .

  Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
  Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.

  But at my back in a cold blast I hear
  The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.

  A rat crept softly through the vegetation
  Dragging its slimy belly on the bank
  While I was fishing in the dull canal
  On a winter evening round behind the gashouse                           190
  Musing upon the king my brother's wreck
  And on the king my father's death before him.

  White bodies naked on the low damp ground
  And bones cast in a little low dry garret,
  Rattled by the rat's foot only, year to year.

  But at my back from time to time I hear
  The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring
  Sweeney to Mrs.
 Porter in the spring.

  O the moon shone bright on Mrs.
 Porter
  And on her daughter                                                     200
  They wash their feet in soda water
  Et O ces voix d'enfants, chantant dans la coupole!

  Twit twit twit
  Jug jug jug jug jug jug
  So rudely forc'd.

  Tereu

  Unreal City
  Under the brown fog of a winter noon
  Mr.
 Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant
  Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants                                210
  C.
i.
f.
 London: documents at sight,
  Asked me in demotic French
  To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel
  Followed by a weekend at the Metropole.


  At the violet hour, when the eyes and back
  Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
  Like a taxi throbbing waiting,
  I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,
  Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
  At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives                       220
  Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,
  The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights
  Her stove, and lays out food in tins.

  Out of the window perilously spread
  Her drying combinations touched by the sun's last rays,
  On the divan are piled (at night her bed)
  Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays.

  I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs
  Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest—
  I too awaited the expected guest.
                                       230
  He, the young man carbuncular, arrives,
  A small house agent's clerk, with one bold stare,
  One of the low on whom assurance sits
  As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.

  The time is now propitious, as he guesses,
  The meal is ended, she is bored and tired,
  Endeavours to engage her in caresses
  Which still are unreproved, if undesired.

  Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
  Exploring hands encounter no defence;                                   240
  His vanity requires no response,
  And makes a welcome of indifference.

  (And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
  Enacted on this same divan or bed;
  I who have sat by Thebes below the wall
  And walked among the lowest of the dead.
)
  Bestows one final patronising kiss,
  And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit .
 .
 .


  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,
  And puts a record on the gramophone.


  "This music crept by me upon the waters"
  And along the Strand, up Queen Victoria Street.

  O City city, I can sometimes hear
  Beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street,                             260
  The pleasant whining of a mandoline
  And a clatter and a chatter from within
  Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the walls
  Of Magnus Martyr hold
  Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold.


       The river sweats
       Oil and tar
       The barges drift
       With the turning tide
       Red sails                                                          270
       Wide
       To leeward, swing on the heavy spar.

       The barges wash
       Drifting logs
       Down Greenwich reach
       Past the Isle of Dogs.

            Weialala leia
            Wallala leialala

       Elizabeth and Leicester
       Beating oars                                                       280
       The stern was formed
       A gilded shell
       Red and gold
       The brisk swell
       Rippled both shores
       Southwest wind
       Carried down stream
       The peal of bells
       White towers
            Weialala leia                                                 290
            Wallala leialala

  "Trams and dusty trees.

  Highbury bore me.
 Richmond and Kew
  Undid me.
 By Richmond I raised my knees
  Supine on the floor of a narrow canoe.
"

  "My feet are at Moorgate, and my heart
  Under my feet.
 After the event
  He wept.
 He promised 'a new start'.

  I made no comment.
 What should I resent?"
  "On Margate Sands.
                                                      300
  I can connect
  Nothing with nothing.

  The broken fingernails of dirty hands.

  My people humble people who expect
  Nothing.
"
       la la

  To Carthage then I came

  Burning burning burning burning
  O Lord Thou pluckest me out
  O Lord Thou pluckest                                                    310

  burning

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