"He Do the Police in Different Voices"
Before Pound edited the first draft of "The Waste Land," the work was entitled HE DO THE POLICE IN DIFFERENT VOICES, as a reference to Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. Pound changed this, and completely crossed out the first page-long stanza of the Burial of the Dead, which Eliot then deleted. This opening section spoke of a number of people dancing, going to the theatre, and then the pub. This opening stanza can be accessed in full The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript.
This stanza opens with the line,
"First we had a couple of feelers down at Tom's place..." (V. Eliot 5)
This line is much more understated than the present opening line, "April is the cruellest month..."(Eliot 1). This line is a nod to the Canterbury Tales, and also gives the reader an idea of Eliot's ironic approach to the literature he quotes in "The Waste Land."
This website is the work of Abigail L. Bunting
This stanza opens with the line,
"First we had a couple of feelers down at Tom's place..." (V. Eliot 5)
This line is much more understated than the present opening line, "April is the cruellest month..."(Eliot 1). This line is a nod to the Canterbury Tales, and also gives the reader an idea of Eliot's ironic approach to the literature he quotes in "The Waste Land."
This website is the work of Abigail L. Bunting