Exploring
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Exploring
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In his poem The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot has a number of allusions to songs. This page is intended to serve as a starting point to understand his use of these allusions.
Quick access to the contents of this page (I also have other T.S. Eliot pages.)
Eliot's draft for The Waste Land had 54 lines preceeding the famous famous April is the cruellest month. These lines were deleted in the editing process. In the first 16 of these lines Eliot managed to have people sing two songs and he had thought of including words from three other songs.
Joe sang some lines from Harrigan from the musical Fifty Miles from Boston by George M. Cohen.
Mr. Fay was singing The Maid of the Mill words by Hamilton Aidé, music by Stephen Adams.
In addition to those two songs appearing in the typescript, there were some lines from other songs written in the margin. First was a line that was a combination of two songs:
Also written out longhand next to the typescript were some words from Cubanola Glide words by Vincent Bryan, music by Harry von Tilzer (1909)
Source: The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound, pages 4, 5 and 125.
Further information about each of these songs (if available) are supplied seperately below.
The chances are good that you have heard this one. Harrigan was written and composed by George M. Cohan in 1907. It is the song that spells out Harrigan. Besides being performed in Cohan's 1908 musical Fifty Miles from Boston it was performed in the James Cagney 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy about Cohan.
The following lyrics to Harrigan were found at "Perfessor" Bill Edwards' ragtime site in a page linked from: http://www.perfessorbill.com/pbmidi9.htm#harrigan ( August 21, 2000 )
Who is the man who will spend or will even lend?
Harrigan, That's Me!
Who is your friend when you find that you need a friend?
Harrigan, That's Me!
For I'm just as proud of my name you see,
As an Emperor, Czar or a King, could be.
Who is the man helps a man every time he can?
Harrigan, That's Me!
Who is the man never stood for a gad about?CHORUS
H - A - double R - I - G - A - N spells Harrigan
Proud of all the Irish blood that's in me; Divil a man can say a word agin me.
H - A - double R - I - G - A - N, you see,
Is a name that a shame never has been connected with, Harrigan, That's me!
Harrigan, That's Me!
Who is the man that the town's simply mad about?
Harrigan, That's Me!
The ladies and babies are fond of me,
I'm fond of them, too, in return, you see.
Who is the gen that's deserving a monument?
Harrigan, That's Me!
[REPEAT CHORUS]
A midi sound file is available off of the same page
Valerie Eliot's notes to the facsimile of The Waste Land cites The Maid of the Mill words by Hamilton Aidé, music by Stephen Adams.
Sorry, I currently have no further useful information about this song.
"Meet me pretty Lindy by the watermelon vine"
Sorry, I currently have no further useful information about this song.
Valerie Eliot's notes to the facsimile of The Waste Land cites My Evaline, by Mae Anwerda Sloane (1901.) Additionally, she gives some of the lyrics to My Evaline. After searching the internet for them it appears that My Evaline is also known more famously as the barbershop quartet classic Sweet Adeline.
The lyrics to Sweet Adeline are:
Say you'll be mine
Won't you come and let me whisper in your ear
Way down yonder in the old corn field
For you
I've pined
Sweeter than the honey
To the honey bee
I love you
Say you love me
Meet me in the shade
Of the old apple tree
Eva-Iva-Ova-Evaline
A midi sound file is available off of page http://www.mybonbon.com/sit/nostalgia.htm
A digital copy (jpeg format) of the original sheetmusic to the Cubanola Glide (words by Vincent Bryan, music by Harry von Tilzer - 1909) can be found at the Historic American Sheet Music website, part of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University.
There are 6 pages to the song. The pages range in size from about 250 KB to 375 KB.The URL to the site is: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/
As for the music, it is possible to listen to two different midi sound files by visiting these pages:
The song lyrics are available by looking at the jpeg images found at the Duke University site. I forgot to write them down. I hope to add them soon.
Lines 31-42 of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land are:
31) Frisch weht der Wind
32) Der Heimat zu
33) Mein Irisch Kind,
34) Wo weilest du?
35) 'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
36) 'They called me the hyacinth girl.'
37) --Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
38) Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
39) Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
40) Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
41) Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
42) Oed' und leer das Meer.
Eliot's notes for lines 31 and 42 are:
31) V. Tristan und Isolde, I, verses 5-8.
42) Id. III, verse 24.
Here are translations of the lines used by Eliot. For a fuller translation of the lyrics you will have to wait for an updated version of this page.
Frisch weht der Wind / Der Heimat zu / Mein Irisch Kind, / Wo weilest du?
Fresh blows the wind / To the homeland / My Irish darling / Where do you linger?
Oed' und leer das Meer
Desolate and empty the sea
Eliot is directing us to the opening scenes of acts 1 and 3 of the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner, composer and lyricist. In the first scene of act 1, the scene opens with a ship sailing from Ireland to Cornwall carrying Isolde, accompanied by Tristan, to meet her betrothed, King Mark. A young sailor sings a melancholy song about a woman left behind. Later a magic potion is drunk by both Tristan and Isolde and they fall deeply in love. As with King Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot, this brings problems. In act 2 Tristan is mortally wounded and leaves Cornwall for his castle in Brittany. There, in act 3, a musical conversation takes place and he waits for Isolde to come to heal him. A shepherd is asked to look for Isolde's ship and he replys "Oed' und leer das Meer."
The Metropolitan Opera (New York) has a much better synopsis of the Tristan plot.
Act III, scene 1 (the first song)Act III, scene 1 (a portion)Stimme eines jungen Seemanns.
(aus der Höhe, wie vom Mast her, vernehmbar)
Westwärts
schweift der Blick:
ostwärts
streicht das Schiff.
Frisch weht der Wind
der Heimat zu:
mein irisch Kind,
wo weilest du?
Sind's deiner Seufzer Wehen,
die mir die Segel blähen?
Wehe, wehe, du Wind!
Weh, ach wehe, mein Kind!
Irische Maid,
du wilde, minnige Maid!
Hirt.
Kurwenal.(leise)
Kurwenal! He!
Sag, Kurwenal!
Hör doch, Freund!
(Kurwenal wendet ein wenig das Haupt nach ihm.)
Wacht er noch nicht?
Hirt.(schüttelt traurig mit dem Kopf)
Erwachte er,
wär's doch nur,
um für immer zu verscheiden:
erschien zuvor
die Ärztin nicht,
die einz'ge, die uns hilft. ---
Sahst du noch nichts?
Kein Schiff noch auf der See?
Kurwenal.Eine andre Weise
hörtest du dann,
so lustig, als ich sie nur kann.
Nun sag auch ehrlich,
alter Freund:
was hat's mit unserm Herrn?
Hirt.Laß die Frage:
du kannst's doch nie erfahren.
Eifrig späh,
und siehst du ein Schiff,
so spiele lustig und hell!
(Der Hirt wendet sich und späht, mit der
Hand überm Auge, nach dem Meer aus.)
Tristan.Öd und leer das Meer!
(Er setzt die Schalmei an den Mund
und entfernt sich blasend.)
[I have omitted the rest of the scene](bewegungslos, dumpf)
Die alte Weise ---
was weckt sie mich?
The Tristan und Isolde libretto is available from:
Eliot received a letter from his French friend, Jean Verdenal (dated February 5, 1912) where Verdenal wrote:
Tristan and Isolde is terribly moving at first hearing, and leaves you prostate with ecstasy and thirsting to get back to it again.1
[1] The Letters of T.S. Eliot, Vol. I, p. 29
Britannica.com has an article on the legend of Tristan and Isolde used by Wagner for his opera.
Other resources:
- http://www.wagnersf.org/wagner.html
- A page of links to Wagner related sites
- http://users.utu.fi/hansalmi/wagner.html
- Richard Wagner Archive
Lines 126-130 of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land are:
126) 'Are you alive, or not? Is there nothing in your head?'
127) But
128) O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag--
129) It's so elegant
130) So intelligent
Michael North1 tells us that That Shakespearian Rag2 was first published by Joseph W. Stern & Company in 1912 and that the words were by Gene Buck and Herman Ruby, and the music by David Stamper. The lyrics are:
"Friends, Romans, Countrymen,
I come not here to praise,"
But lend an ear and you will hear
a rag, yes, a rag that is grand, and
Bill Shakespeare never knew
Of ragtime in his days
But the high browed rhymes,
Of his syncopated lines,
You'll admit, surely fit,
any song that's now a hit,
So this rag I submit."My Kingdom for a horse,Chorus:
That Shakesperian rag--
Most intelligent, very elegant,
That old classical drag
Has the proper stuff
The line, "Lay on MacDuff"3
Desdemona was the pampered pet
Romeo loves his Juliet
And they were some lovers
You can bet, and yet
I know if they were here today
They'd Grizzly Bear4 in a different way
And you'd hear old Hamlet say
"To be or not to be"
That Shakesperian rag...
Was what they used to say;"
It's different now, you will allow,
A tune, play a tune, start to croon, soon,
"As you like it" Brutus,
We'll play a rag today.
Then old Shylock danced,
And the Moor, Othello pranced.
Feeling gay, he would say,
as he started in to sway,
"Bring the rag, right away."[Chorus]
Exploring The Waste Land notes on the above:
[1] Eliot, T.S., The Waste Land: authoritative text, contexts, criticism, Michael North, ed., New York, London, W.W. Norton & Company, A Norton Critical Edition (2001), pp. 51-4
[2] Note Eliot's changes: There are no repeating Os, the "That" in the song title is lowercase and "Shakespearian" has been turned into "Shakespeherian."
[3] MacDuff, Desdemona, Romeo, Juliet, Hamlet, Brutus, Shylock and Othello are, of course, characters in Shakespeare's plays.
[4] The Grizzly Bear was a scandalous dance where the partners danced in a postion reminding one of a bear hug.
For more information (and lyrics, midis and pictures) on the Grizzly Bear visit:
- http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3grzber.htm
- A history of the Grizzly Bear and pictures at Sonny Watson Dance History Pages
- http://www.perfessorbill.com/pbmidi9.htm#grizzly
- "Perfessor" Bill Edwards' description, lyrics and midi for Irving Berlin's song for the this dance.
Lines 196-202 of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land are:
196) But at my back from time to time I hear
197) The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring
198) Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring.
199) O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter
200) And on her daughter
201) They wash their feet in soda water
202) Et, O ces voix d'enfants, chantant dans la coupole!
Eliot's note for line 199 was:
I do not know the origin of the ballad from which these lines are taken: it was reported to me from Sydney, Australia.
Mrs. Porter was a madame of a Cairo brothel and she and her daughter were well known to Australian troops who created new (risque) lyrics to a popular ragtime song. Kenneth Asher on page 44 of his T.S. Eliot and Ideology, supplies the following text that the troops sung:
My notes on the above lines:O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter
And on the daughter
of Mrs. Porter.
They wash their ____s1 in soda water2
and so they ougther3
To keep them clean
[1] Asher supplies the word. I censored it to allow this page to be viewed by schools using pornography filters.
[2] A bicarbonate of soda solution, not carbonated water.
[3] Ougther - ought to.
B.C. Southam in his A Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot indicates that the words were sung to the tune of the chorus of Red Wing by Thurland Chattaway.
With the above information I set out on an internet search for Red Wing and here is what I've found. Of most interest to fans of The Waste Land are:
Well, the original lyrics (by Thurland Chattaway) were:
There once lived an Indian maid,
A shy little prairie maid,
Who sang a lay,
a love song gay,
As on the plain she'd
while away the day;
She loved a warrior bold,
this shy little maid of old,
But brave and gay,
he rode one day
to battle far away.
[CHORUS]
Now, the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing,
the breeze is sighing,
the night bird's crying,
For afar 'neath his star her brave is sleeping,
while Red Wing's weeping
her heart away.
She watched for him day and night,
She kept all the campfires bright,
And under the sky,
each night she would lie,
And dream about his
coming by and by;
But when all the braves returned,
the heart of Red Wing yearned,
For far, far away,
her warrior gay,
fell bravely in the fray.
[REPEAT CHORUS]
As for the music (composed by Kerry Mills who also wrote Meet Me In St. Louis) it is possible to listen to two different midi sound files by visiting these pages:
A digital copy (jpeg format) of the original sheetmusic can be found at the Historic American Sheet Music website, part of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University.
There are 10 pages to the sheet including advertising, small pieces of other songs printed in what I take to be samples of music that can be bought seperately. The pages range in size from about 250 KB to 500 KB.
Duke University's site does not indicate who did the cover art for the sheet but another site indicates that it was someone named Hirt.
The song Red Wing had the alternate titles of Indian Intermezzo and Indian Fable.
In the Gallipoli campaign, lasting about 9 months, each side suffered about 250,000 casualties. It is thus somewhat poignant that the soldiers at Gallipoli sang such risque words to a song about a warrior who never returns from battle. Eliot's friend, Jean Verdenal, died in the Gallipoli campaign. More on this friend (to whom Eliot dedicated his first volume of poems) is at my T.S. Eliot and Jean Verdenal web page. Britannica.com has an article on the Gallipoli campaign.
Lines 423-427 of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land are:
423) I sat upon the shore
424) Fishing, with the arid plain behind me
425) Shall I at least set my lands in order?
426) London Bridge is falling down falling down falling down
427) Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina
London Bridge Is Falling Down is a children's song that is part of a game. London Bridge, being a folk song, has many variations on the words and line ordering. This should be a fairly good rendering:
London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady.Take a key and lock her up, lock her up, lock her up.
Take a key and lock her up, my fair lady.How will we build it up, build it up, build it up?
How will we build it up, my fair lady.Build it up with silver and gold, silver and gold, silver and gold.
Build it up with silver and gold, my fair lady.Gold and silver I have none, I have none, I have none.
Gold and silver I have none, my fair lady.Build it up with needles and pins, needles and pins, needles and pins.
Build it up with needles and pins, my fair lady.Pins and needles will bend and break, bend and break, bend and break.
Pins and needles will bend and break, my fair lady.Build it up with wood and clay, wood and clay, wood and clay.
Build it up with wood and clay, my fair lady.Wood and clay will wash away, wash away, wash away.
Wood and clay will wash away, my fair lady.Build it up with stones so strong, stones so strong, stones so strong.
Build it up with stones so strong, my fair lady.Stones so strong will last so long, last so long, last so long.
Stones so strong will last so long, my fair lady.Build it up with iron bars, iron bars, iron bars.
Build it up with iron bars, my fair lady.Iron bars will bend and break, bend and break, bend and break.
Iron bars will bend and break, my fair lady.Build it up with gravel and stones, gravel and stones, gravel and stones.
Build it up with gravel and stones, my fair lady.Gravel and stones will wash away, wash away, wash away.
Gravel and stones will wash away, my fair lady.London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady.
Midi sound files (and some other sound file formats) of London Bridge can be found at these URLs:
Britannica.com has a couple of articles on London Bridge:
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