Deletion of this phrase in original draft
In the original draft of this stanza, this line is scored through with a pencil, thus making the deletion Ezra Pound's. However, Eliot chose to retain this line, because it covers his theme of water as an agent of overpowering, of drowning, This theme is repeated a few lines later when Madame Sosotris tells us to "Fear death by water."(Eliot 55).
This website the work of Abigail L. Bunting
This website the work of Abigail L. Bunting