Well, maybe Eliot failed to become Anglicized; I agree that the quoted attempt at self-conscious Englischkeit is embarassing, rather likethe pathetic American drones one would sometimes see around the Cambs colleges, talking in bad imitation of Brit accents,a nd hoping to be accepted by the Brits as one of their own. But he did cease to be American, to relate to currents in American literature, to respond to American concerns--quite unlike, e.g., Stein, Hemingway, etct, and the other expats, who were just being American in Paris. Eliot may not have become English, but he did abandon us. --jks > > >Justin Schwartz wrote: > > > > Fair enough, at least about Pound. Eliot became so thoroughly Anglicized >(as > > I was not) that he was only from here, AMerican in the sense that, say, > > Conrad was Polish. > >I haven't given much thought to Eliot for 40 years or so, but I'll >quibble a bit. Eliot _tried_ to become anglicized; perhaps _he_ thought >that he had succeeded in becoming anglicized. That is he had realized >one of the 1000 or so different fragments that make up that non-category >of "The American Dream." Moreover, it is only if you concentrate on his >prose, his rather dull plays, and perhaps his cat poems that he is even >in appearance so "non-american" (whatever it means to be "american"). >Here is Eliot trying to be "English" in his poetry: [Notes: the chair of >Mary of Scotland: "En ma fin est mon commencement" (ref. "tattered >arras" in lines below); Mary was a contemporary of Sir Thomas Elyot, so >we go from an early Elyot to an air-raid warden Eliot in World War 2 >(the end)] > > In my beginning is my end. In succession > Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, > ARe removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place > Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass. > Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires, > Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth > Which is already flesh, fur and faeces, > Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf. > House live and die: there is a time for building > And a time for living and for generation > And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane > And to shake the wainscot where the field-mouse trots > And to shake the tattered arras with a silent motto. > > In my beginning is my end. Now the light falls > Across the open field, leaving the deep lane > Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon, > Where you lean against a bank while a van passes . . . . > . . . . . . . > On a Summer midnight, you can hear the music > Of the weak pipe and the little drum > And see them dancing around the bonfire > The association of man and woman > In daunsinge, signifying matrimonie -- > A dignfied and commodious sacrament. > Two and tow, necessarye coniunction, > Holding eche other by the hand or the arm > Whiche betokeneth concorde. Round and round the fire . . . > ...... > Lifting heavy feet in clumsy shoes, > Earth feet, loam feet, lifted in country mirth. . . . > (East Coker, lines 1 ff.) > >This is England seen from the banks of the Mississippi. > >Carrol > >Are we boring most of Pen-L? Is everyone interested in this discussion >also on lbo? > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
