The time is now propitious, as he guesses,
The meal is ended, she is bored and tired,
Endeavours to engage her in caresses
Which still are unreproved, if undesired.
Flushed and decided, he assaults at once;
Exploring hands encounter no defence;
His vanity requires no response,
And makes a welcome of indifference.
(And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
Enacted on this same divan or bed;
I who have sat by Thebes below the wall
And walked among the lowest of the dead.)
Bestows one final patronising kiss,
And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit . . .
______
Rhyming disruption of the couplet is why I love this section of TWL. I remember Mark Levine in Forms of Poetry telling us to find sonnets in Eliot. This is the first one that I found. I was so excited that day. Tiresias indeed!
I want to write more and whine less. Maybe I should make a prequel to my New Year's resolutions and do exactly that.
My grades are in--"Well, now that's done and I'm glad it's over." (Same poem!)
