Books: Tom to T. S.

• Share

(2 of 2)

Below such praises the editors did Eliot the less certain favor of printing eight of his undergraduate poems, first published in the Advocate in 1907-10, never reprinted. Sample:

Romeo, grand sérieux, to importune

Guitar and hat in hand, beside the gate

With Juliet, in the usual debate

Of love, beneath a bored but courteous moon;

The conversation jailing, strikes some tune

Banal, and out of pity for their fate

Behind the wall I have some servant

wait, Stab, and the lady sinks into a swoon.

Blood looks effective on the moonlit ground—

The hero smiles; in my best mode oblique

Rolls toward the moon a frenzied eye profound,

(No need of "Love Forever?"—"Love next week?")

While female readers all in tears are drowned:—

"The perfect climax all true lovers seek!"