Conversation Galante

T. S. Eliot 1888 (St. Louis, Missouri, United States) – 1965 (Kensington)



I observe: "Our sentimental friend the moon!
Or possibly (fantastic, I confess)
It may be Prester John’s balloon
Or an old battered lantern hung aloft
To light poor travellers to their distress."
  She then: "How you digress!"
 
And I then: "Some one frames upon the keys
That exquisite nocturne, with which we explain
The night and moonshine; music which we seize
To body forth our own vacuity."
  She then: "Does this refer to me?"
  "Oh no, it is I who am inane."
 
"You, madam, are the eternal humorist,
The eternal enemy of the absolute,
Giving our vagrant moods the slightest twist!
With your aid indifferent and imperious
At a stroke our mad poetics to confute—"
  And—"Are we then so serious?"
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Submitted by halel on July 13, 2020

Modified on April 30, 2023

39 sec read
69

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABACBB DEDCXE XXXFCF
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 758
Words 133
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6

T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns Eliot OM was an American-British poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a prominent Boston Brahmin family, he moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25 and went on to settle, work and marry there. more…

All T. S. Eliot poems | T. S. Eliot Books

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