RPO -- Thomas Stearns Eliot : Mr. Apollinax

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965)

Mr. Apollinax

1When Mr. Apollinax visited the United States

2His laughter tinkled among the teacups.

3I thought of Fragilion, that shy figure among the birch-trees,

4And of Priapus in the shrubbery

5Gaping at the lady in the swing.

6In the palace of Mrs. Phlaccus, at Professor Channing-Cheetah's

7He laughed like an irresponsible fœtus.

8His laughter was submarine and profound

9Like the old man of the sea's

10Hidden under coral islands

11Where worried bodies of drowned men drift down in the green silence,

12Dropping from fingers of surf.

13I looked for the head of Mr. Apollinax rolling under a chair,

14Or grinning over a screen

15With seaweed in its hair.

16I heard the beat of centaurs' hoofs over the hard turf

17As his dry and passionate talk devoured the afternoon.

18"He is a charming man" -- "But after all what did he mean?" --

19"His pointed ears .... He must be unbalanced," --

20"There was something he said that I might have challenged."

21Of dowager Mrs. Phlaccus, and Professor and Mrs. Cheetah

22I remember a slice of lemon, and a bitten macaroon.

Notes

1] This poem describes the Cambridge philosopher Bertrand Russell, including his pointed ears (The Letters of T. S. Eliot, ed. Valerie Eliot, Vol. 1: 1898-1922 [London: Faber and Faber, 1988]: 483).

3] Fragilion: a name suggesting an effeminate man.

4] Priapus: classical god of procreation.

6] Professor Channing-Cheetah: according to Valerie Eliot, this resembles one of Eliot's teachers at Harvard, Professor William Henry Schofield (1870-1920; Letters, p. 483).

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
© T.S. Eliot and Faber and Faber Ltd 1974
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: T. S. Eliot, Prufrock and Other Observations (London: The Egoist, 1917): 35-36. E546 P784 1917 Fisher Rare Book Library.
First publication date: September 1916
Publication date note: First printed in "Observations," Poetry 8.6 (Sept. 1916). Donald Gallup, T. S. Eliot: A Bibliography (London: Faber and Faber, 1969): A1, C28.
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 2:2002/4/25

Composition date note: presumably after Eliot met Bertrand Russell at Harvard in late March 1914
Rhyme: unrhyming

Other poems by Thomas Stearns Eliot