The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
I. The Burial of the Dead
APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding | |
| Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing | |
| Memory and desire, stirring | |
| Dull roots with spring rain. | |
| Winter kept us warm, covering |
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| Earth in forgetful snow, feeding | |
| A little life with dried tubers. | |
| Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee | |
| With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade, | |
| And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten, |
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| And drank coffee, and talked for an hour. | |
| Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch. | |
| And when we were children, staying at the archduke's, | |
| My cousin's, he took me out on a sled, | |
| And I was frightened. He said, Marie, |
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| Marie, hold on tight. And down we went. | |
| In the mountains, there you feel free. | |
| I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter. | |
| |
| What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow | |
| Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, |
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| You cannot say, or guess, for you know only |
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| A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, | |
| And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, | |
| And the dry stone no sound of water. Only | |
| There is shadow under this red rock, |
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| (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), | |
| And I will show you something different from either | |
| Your shadow at morning striding behind you | |
| Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; | |
| I will show you fear in a handful of dust. |
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