"Song to the Opherian"
T.S. Eliot

Introduction

This webpage presents T.S. Eliot's un-collected poem "Song to the Opherian." It was published in the first volume of The Tyro (Spring 1921). The punctuation here (or lack thereof) is as it was originally published. The "Notes" section below contains more information about the poem.

The Poem

Song to the Opherian.

The golden foot I may not kiss or clutch
Glowed in the shadow of the bed
Perhaps it does not come to very much
This thought this ghost this pendulum in the head
Swinging from life to death
Bleeding between two lives
Waiting that touch.

The wind sprang up and broke the bells,
Is it a dream or something else
When the surface of the blackened river
Is a face that sweats with tears?
I saw across the alien river
The campfire shake the spears.

Gus Krutzsch.

Notes

Notes:

The poem

This webpage presents T.S. Eliot's poem "Song to the Opherian" that appeared in the first volume of The Tyro (Spring 1921). The punctuation here (or lack thereof) is as it was originally published. This poem does not appear in Eliot's Collected Poems or even in his Complete Poems and Plays. The reason it is un-collected is because many lines were used in a later poem (see Doris's Dream Songs below).

A draft of the poem is shown on pp. 98-9 of The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound.

The poem and two accompanying Tyro essays by Eliot were classified as work C119 by Donald Gallup in his bibliography of Eliot's works.

The title

Note that the title of the poem is "Song to the Opherian," not "Song for the Opherian."

The word Opherian does not exist. Valerie Eliot suggests that Eliot meant the lute-like musical instrument, the Orpharion (from Orpheus and Arion.) [[Wikipedia links: Orpharion, Orpheus, Arion]]

The Tyro

The Tyro: A Review of the Arts of Painting, Sculpture and Design was the short-lived (two issues) magazine founded and edited by Eliot's friend (Percy) Wyndham Lewis.

"Song to the Opherian" was pseudonymously attributed to Gus Krutzsch, possibly because Eliot also had two essays published in the issue also and too many works by Eliot may have led to thinking that Lewis and Eliot were forming a club.

The two Eliot essays (copies of both are accessible at this website) were: "The Lesson of Baudelaire" and "The Romantic Englishman, the Comic Spirit, and the Function of Criticism"

Gus Krutzsch

Eliot often had fun with names. This extended to the names of the cats in his Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and to the title character in his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." One pseudonym Eliot wrote under was Charles Augustus Conybeare.

Valerie Eliot included a note in the The Waste Land facsimile book (p. 125) describing two authors' thoughts on a Krutzsch/crotch comparison and tying that in with The Satyricon's Encolpius/crotch usage.

The pseudonym Gus Krutzsch had a chance to appear in The Waste Land. In the draft opening to the poem (composed in 1921), where a night out on the town is described, a number of people are named. Eliot had crossed out Joe Leahy and handwritten in Gus Krutzsch as a visitor to the German Club.

Use of "Opherian" lines elsewhere

The Waste Land

In early 1922 Eliot and Ezra Pound corresponded over the editing of The Waste Land. Pound thought that only two lines of "Song to the Opherian" could be incorporated into the larger poem. Eliot then asked if the lines could go into the "nerves dialogue." Pound responded with "I dare say the sweats with tears will wait." No lines from "Opherian" were added to The Waste Land.

Perhaps because Eliot had this poem in his pocket and he only had a few lines in it that he considered worthwhile he may have been happy to use it in the first issue of The Tyro, an issue that might be overlooked by the public.

Doris's Dream Songs

Seven of the thirteen lines from "Song to the Opherian" reappear (in revised form) in the twelve lines of Eliot's later poem "The wind sprang up at four o'clock." These lines are "Swinging between life and death" of the first stanza and all six lines of the second stanza.

In 1924 three poems by Eliot were published in the periodical, Chapbook, edited by Harold Monro. The poems were collected under the title Doris's Dream Songs (where Doris alludes to the character in the last stanza of Eliot's poem, "Sweeney Erect," published in 1919.) The poems were entitled: "Eyes that I last saw in tears," "The wind sprang up at four o'clock," and "This is the dead land."

The first two poems, "Eyes ..." and "The wind ...," appear in Eliot collections under the heading "Minor Poems." The third poem, "This is the dead land," was incorporated as Part III of "The Hollow Men."

Gallup classified Doris's Dream Songs as work C158a in his bibliography of Eliot's works. "Sweeney Erect" is C81.

References:

Eliot, T.S.   "Song to the Opherian"   Tyro,   vol. I,   Spring 1921,   p. 6

Eliot, T.S.   Doris's Dream Songs (I-III)   Chapbook,   vol. 39,   London : Poetry Bookshop, ([Nov.] 1924).   pp. 36-7

Eliot, T.S.   The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound.   Valerie Eliot, ed.   New York: Harcourt Brace & Company (1971)   pp. 4-5, 98-9, 125, 129-30

Gallup, Donald.   T.S. Eliot: A Bibliography, A Revised and Extended Edition.   New York: Harcourt, Brace & World (1969)   pp. 203, 207, 210-11

Website: FluxEuropa - dark music and more
Webpage: FluxEuropa: The Art and Ideas of Wyndham Lewis
URL: http://www.fluxeuropa.com/wyndhamlewis-art_and_ideas.htm
Author: Rik
Revision date: January 7, 1999
Viewed: May 22, 2006

United States copyright law accords public domain status to works published prior to 1923. Therefore it is my understanding that this poem is in the public domain in the U.S. but perhaps not in other countries (particularly in the U.K. and E.U.) Be careful about republication.

About this webpage:

URL:
http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/tseliot/works/poems/opherian.html
Revision date (y/m/d h:m:s):
$Date: 2006/11/13 23:07:48 $
Publisher:
Rickard A. Parker    (raparker@theworld.com)

 

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