Deletion of stanzas
In the first draft, there are four stanzas preceding "The river's tent is broken..."
In them, Eliot parodied the preparation of Belinda in Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock by writing of a woman's toilette in heroic couplets and linking "white-armed Fresca" with the scene in the Iliad where Achilles dons his armor. Eliot also paid homage to James Joyce's Ulysses, in writing a scene where his protagonist prepares for her day by visiting "the needful stool" and writing letters to her fellow socialites.
"Leaving the bubbling beverage to cool,
Fresca slips softly to the needful stool,
Where the pathetic tale of Richardson
Eases her labour till the deed is done..." (V. Eliot 23)
Pound criticised this opening, saying that these four stanzas added nothing new to Pope or Joyce, so Eliot slashed through the lines in pen.
This website the work of Abigail L. Bunting
In them, Eliot parodied the preparation of Belinda in Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock by writing of a woman's toilette in heroic couplets and linking "white-armed Fresca" with the scene in the Iliad where Achilles dons his armor. Eliot also paid homage to James Joyce's Ulysses, in writing a scene where his protagonist prepares for her day by visiting "the needful stool" and writing letters to her fellow socialites.
"Leaving the bubbling beverage to cool,
Fresca slips softly to the needful stool,
Where the pathetic tale of Richardson
Eases her labour till the deed is done..." (V. Eliot 23)
Pound criticised this opening, saying that these four stanzas added nothing new to Pope or Joyce, so Eliot slashed through the lines in pen.
This website the work of Abigail L. Bunting