The Boston Evening Transcript

Eliot, Thomas Stearns (1888 - 1965)

Original Text

T. S. Eliot, Prufrock and Other Observations (London: The Egoist, 1917): 32. E546 P784 1917 Fisher Rare Book Library. Donald Gallup, T. S. Eliot: A Bibliography (London: Faber and Faber, 1969): A1.

1The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript

2Sway in the wind like a field of ripe corn.

3When evening quickens faintly in the street,

4Wakening the appetites of life in some

5And to others bringing the Boston Evening Transcript,

6I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning

7Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Rochefoucauld,

8If the street were time and he at the end of the street,

9And I say, "Cousin Harriet, here is the Boston Evening Transcript."

Notes

7] Rochefoucauld: François La Rochefoucauld, duc de (1613-80), French writer of literary epigrams on life and manners, published in his Maximes (1665), which went through five editions during his lifetime. Back to Line

Publication Start Year

1915

Publication Notes

Published in Poetry (Oct. 1915)

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

RPO 1998.

Rhyme

unrhyming