La Figlia Che Piange
La Figlia Che Piange
Original Text
T. S. Eliot, Prufrock and Other Observations (London: The Egoist, 1917): 39-40. E546 P784 1917 Fisher Rare Book Library.
1Stand on the highest pavement of the stair --
2Lean on a garden urn --
3Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair --
4Clasp your flowers to you with a pained surprise --
5Fling them to the ground and turn
6With a fugitive resentment in your eyes:
7But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair.
8So I would have had him leave,
9So I would have had her stand and grieve,
10So he would have left
11As the soul leaves the body torn and bruised,
12As the mind deserts the body it has used.
13I should find
14Some way incomparably light and deft,
15Some way we both should understand,
17She turned away, but with the autumn weather
18Compelled my imagination many days,
19Many days and many hours:
20Her hair over her arms and her arms full of flowers.
21And I wonder how they should have been together!
22I should have lost a gesture and a pose.
23Sometimes these cogitations still amaze
24The troubled midnight and the noon's repose.
Notes
16] Cf. Jules Laforgue's "Petition": "Avec toutes, l'amour s'échange / Simple et sans foi comme un boujour" (Poésies complètes, ed. Pascal Pia [Livre de Poche, 1970]: 290). Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1916
Publication Notes
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 Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme
Special Copyright
© T.S. Eliot and Faber and Faber Ltd 1974