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The Waste Land (T.S. Eliot) | Full Audiobook (T.S. Eliot) · Pigeon Audiobooks: Poetry

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  Speaker 2: Pigeon Publishing House presents The Wasteland. Author, T.S. Eliot. Narrated
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: by Henry Wells.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Preface.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: First published in 1922, The Wasteland is one of the
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  Speaker 2: defining poems of modernist literature and one of the most
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  Speaker 2: influential works of 20th century poetry. Written by T.S. Eliot,
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  Speaker 2: the poem emerged from the cultural and psychological aftermath of
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  Speaker 2: the First World War, capturing a sense of fragmentation, spiritual uncertainty,
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  Speaker 2: and cultural exhaustion that characterized much of the modern age.
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  Speaker 2: The poem is composed of five sections, The Burial of
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: the Dead, A Game of Chess, The Fire Sermon, Death
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: by Water, and What the Thunder Said. Together, they form
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  Speaker 2: a complex mosaic of voices, images, quotations, literary allusions, and
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  Speaker 2: cultural references drawn from different historical periods and traditions. Eliot
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  Speaker 2: deliberately breaks away from conventional poetic narrative. Instead of presenting
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  Speaker 2: a single continuous story, The Waste Land moves rapidly between speakers, locations, languages, memories, myths,
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  Speaker 2: and fragments of conversation. This fragmented structure reflects the poem's
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  Speaker 2: central vision of a world in which traditional sources of
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  Speaker 2: meaning appear fractured or uncertain. One of the poem's recurring
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  Speaker 2: images is that of waste and renewal. Dry landscapes, barren earth,
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  Speaker 2: sterile relationships, and spiritual emptiness are contrasted with water, rain, fertility,
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  Speaker 2: and the possibility of regeneration. Eliot draws upon ancient myths
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  Speaker 2: and religious traditions to explore the relationship between destruction and rebirth.
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  Speaker 2: The poem is remarkable for the breadth of its cultural references.
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  Speaker 2: Eliot incorporates material from classical mythology, Shakespeare, Dante, the Bible,
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  Speaker 2: Eastern religious traditions, European literature, and other sources. These references
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  Speaker 2: create a dialogue between the modern world and the civilizations
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  Speaker 2: that preceded it. At the same time, the wasteland is
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  Speaker 2: deeply personal. Beneath its intellectual complexity are themes of loneliness,
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  Speaker 2: failed communication, emotional exhaustion, desire, memory, and the difficulty of
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  Speaker 2: finding spiritual coherence in a fragmented world. The poem's famous
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  Speaker 2: closing passage introduces Sanskrit words associated with teachings from the Upanishads,
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  Speaker 2: ending with the repeated invocation Shanti. The conclusion does not
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  Speaker 2: offer an uncomplicated resolution, but it suggests the possibility of
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  Speaker 2: peace emerging from the poem's vast landscape of disorder. Eliot's
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  Speaker 2: extensive use of allusion and fragmentation can make The Waste
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  Speaker 2: Land demanding for a first-time reader. yet its power does
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  Speaker 2: not depend upon understanding every reference. Its atmosphere, rhythm, imagery,
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  Speaker 2: shifting voices, and emotional tensions create an experience that remains
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  Speaker 2: compelling even when its meanings resist complete interpretation. More than
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: a century after its publication, The Wasteland remains a landmark
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  Speaker 2: of modern poetry. It transformed the possibilities of poetic form
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: and became a defining expression of the uncertainty, fragmentation, and
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: search for meaning that characterize modernity. In this audiobook edition,
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  Speaker 2: Henry Wells provides the narration, bringing Eliot's complex sequence of voices, rhythms,
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  Speaker 2: and images into an auditory experience. The spoken word offers
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  Speaker 2: another way to encounter the poem's musicality and its remarkable
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  Speaker 2: shifts in tone and perspective. The Wasteland Chapter 1 the
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  Speaker 2: burial of the dead one. April is the cruelest month,
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  Speaker 2: two breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory
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  Speaker 2: and desire, stirring. Dull roots with spring rain, winter kept
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  Speaker 2: us warm, covering earth in forgetful snow, feeding a little
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  Speaker 2: life with dried tubers. Summer surprised us, coming over the
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Starnberger C3. With a shower of rain, we stopped in
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  Speaker 2: the colonnade and went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: for and drank coffee, and talked for an hour. And
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: when we were children, staying at the Archduke's. My cousins,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: he took me out on a sled, and I was frightened.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: He said, Marie, Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
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  Speaker 2: In the mountains, there you feel free. I read, much
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: of the night, and go south in the winter. What
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: are the roots that clutch? What branches grow out of
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: this stony rubbish? Son of man, six. You cannot say,
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  Speaker 2: or guess, for you know only. A heap of broken images,
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  Speaker 2: where the sun beats, and the dead tree gives no shelter,
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  Speaker 2: the cricket no relief, seven. And the dry stone no
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: sound of water, only there is shadow under this red rock.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Come in under the shadow of this red rock. And
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I will show you something different from either your shadow
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: at morning striding behind you, or your shadow at evening
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: rising to meet you. I will show you fear in
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: a handful of dust. Fresh wet der wind der high
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: mat zoo. Main Irish kind. Well, why list do? Eight.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: You gave me hyacinths first a year ago. They called
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: me the hyacinth girl. Yet when we came back, late,
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  Speaker 2: from the hyacinth gardens, your arms full, and your hair wet,
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  Speaker 2: I could not speak, and my eyes failed, I was
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  Speaker 2: neither living nor dead, and I knew nothing, looking into
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  Speaker 2: the heart of light, the silence. O.E.D. U.N.D. Lear Dasmere. 9
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Madam Sesostris, famous clairvoyant, had a bad cold, nevertheless. Is
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: known to be the wisest woman in Europe, with a
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: wicked pack of cards. 10 here, said she, is your card,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: the drowned Phoenician sailor. Those are pearls that were his
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: eyes point eleven look. Here is Belladonna, the lady of
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: the rocks, the lady of situations. Here is the man
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: with three staves, and here they wheel. And here is
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: the one-eyed merchant, and this card, which is blank, is
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: something he carries on his back, which I am forbidden
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: to see. I do not find. The hanged man feared
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: death by water. I see crowds of people, Walking round
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: in a ring. Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Tell her I bring the horoscope myself. One must be
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: so careful these days. Unreal City, 12. Under the brown
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: fog of a winter dawn. A crowd flowed over London Bridge.
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  Speaker 2: So many. I had not thought death had undone so
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: many point thirteen sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled. Fourteen,
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  Speaker 2: and each man fixed his eyes before his feet. flowed
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: up the hill and down King William Street. To where St.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Mary Woolnoth kept the hours with a dead sound on
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: the final stroke of 9.15, there I saw one I knew,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: and stopped him, crying, Stetson, you who were with me
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: in the ships at Miley, 16, that corpse you planted
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: last year in your garden, has it begun to sprout?
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Will it bloom this year? Or has the sudden frost
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: disturbed its bed? O keep the dog far hence! that's
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: friend to men, seventeen, or with his nails he'll dig
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: it up again. You, hypocrite lecteur, mon semblable, mon frere.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Eighteen.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Chapter Two A Game of Chess The chair she sat in,
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: like a burnished throne, too glowed on the marble, where
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  Speaker 2: the glass. Held up by standards wrought with fruited vines
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: from which a golden cupid and peeped out, Another hid
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: his eyes behind his wing. Doubled the flames of seven-branched candelabra,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: reflecting light upon the table ass. The glitter of her
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: jewels rose to meet it, from satin cases poured in
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: rich perfusion, in vials of ivory and colored glass unstoppered,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: lurked her strange synthetic perfumes. Unguent, powdered, orthodoxy. liquid, troubled,
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  Speaker 2: confused and drowned the scents and odors. Stirred by the
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: air that freshened from the window, these ascended in fattening
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: the prolonged candle flames. Flung their smoke into the lacquer area,
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: three stirring the pattern on the coffered ceiling, huge sea-wood
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: fed with copper. burned green and orange, framed by the
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: colored stone, in which sad light a carved dolphin swam,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: above the antique mantle was displayed, as though a window
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: gave upon the sylvan scene for the change of Philomel,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: five by the barbarous king, so rudely forced, yet there
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: the nightingale six, filled all the desert with inviolable voice.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: And still she cried, and still the world pursues, jug-jug
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: to dirty years. And other withered stumps of time were
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: told upon the walls, staring forms. Leaned out, leaning, hushing
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: the room enclosed. Footsteps shuffled on the stair. Under the firelight,
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  Speaker 2: under the brush, her hair spread out in fiery points.
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  Speaker 2: Glowed into words, then would be savagely still. My nerves
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  Speaker 2: are bad tonight.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, bad.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Stay with me. Speak to me. Why do you never speak?
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Speak.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: What are you thinking of? What thinking? What? I never
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: know what you were thinking. Think. I think we are
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: in Rats Alley 7, where the dead men lost their bones.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: What is that noise? The wind under the door point 8.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: Nothing again, nothing.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Do.
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  Speaker 2: You know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember? Nothing.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I remember.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Those are pearls that were his eyes point nine. Are
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: you alive or not? Is there nothing in your head?
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: But.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: Oh oh oh off it shakes Bahirian rag ten underscore
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: it's so elegant. So intelligent. What shall I do now?
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: What shall I do? I shall rush out as I
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: am and walk the street with my hair down so
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: what shall we do tomorrow? What shall we ever do?
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: The hot water at ten. And if it rains, a
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: closed car at four. And we shall play a game
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: of chess. Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: upon the door point eleven. When Lil's husband got demobbed,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: twelve I said. I didn't mince my words. I said
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: to her myself, hurry up please, ITS time thirteen. Now
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Albert's coming back. Make yourself a bit smart. He'll want
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: to know what you done with that money he gave you.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: to get yourself some teeth. He did, I was there.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: You have them all out, Lil, and get a nice set,
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: he said. I swear, I can't bear to look at you.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: And no more can I, I said, and think of
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: poor Albert. He's been in the army four years, he
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: wants a good time. And if you don't give it him,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: there's others will, I said. Oh, is there, she said.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Something of that, I said. Then I'll know who to thank,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: she said. and give me a straight look. Hurry up, please,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: it's time. If you don't like it, you can get
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: on with it, I said. Others can pick and choose
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: if you can't. But if Albert makes off, it won't
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: be for lack of telling. You ought to be ashamed,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: I said, to look so antique. And her only thirty-one.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: I can't help it, she said, pulling a long face.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: It's them pills I took, to bring it off, she said.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: She's had five already. and nearly died of young George.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: The chemist said it would be all right, but I've
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: never been the same. You are a proper fool, I said. Well,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: if Albert won't leave you alone, there it is, I said.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: What you get married for if you don't want children?
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Hurry up, please, it's time. Well, that Sunday Albert was home,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: they had a hot gammon, 14. And they asked me
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: into dinner, to get the beauty of it hot. Hurry up, please,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: it's time, hurry up, please, it's time. Good night, Bill.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Good night, Lou.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Good night, May. Good night.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Ta-ta.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Good night. Good night. Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet ladies.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Good night. Good night, point 15. Chapter 3 The Fire
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Sermon The river's tent is broken. The last fingers of
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: leaf clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: crosses the brown land.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: Unheard.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: The nymphs are departed. Sweet Thames, run softly, till I
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: end my song point two. The river bears no empty bottles,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: sandwich papers, silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends, or other
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed. And their friends,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: the loitering heirs of city directors, departed, have left no addresses.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: By the waters of Lehman, I sat down and wept. 3.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song. Sweet Thames,
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: run softly, for I speak not loud or long, but
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: at my back in a cold blast I hear. The
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: rattle of the bones and chuckle spread from ear to ear.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: A rat crept softly through the vegetation dragging its slimy
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: belly on the bank while I was fishing in the
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: dull canal. On a winter evening round behind the gas-house,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: musing upon the king my brother's wreck. And on the
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: king my father's death, before him point four white bodies
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: naked on the low damp ground, and bones cast in
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: a little low dry garret, rattled by the rat's foot only,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: year to year. But at my back from time to
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: time I hear five. The sound of horns and motors,
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: six which shall bring Sweeney to Mrs. Porter in the spring. Oh,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter's seven and on
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: her daughter. They washed their feet in soda water. E-T-O-C-E-S
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: voiks Dion Fawn. Chanton Don La Coupole. A. Twit, twit, twit. Jug, jug, jug, jug, jug, jug.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: So rudely forked. Terra 9. Unreal City. Under the brown
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: fog of a winter noon, Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant unshaven,
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: with a pocket full of currents ten.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: C.F.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: London, documents at sight. Asked me in Demotic 11 French.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel 12 followed by
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: a weekend at the Metropole Point 13. At the violet hour,
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: when the eyes and back turn upward from the desk,
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: when the human engine waits. Like a taxi throbbing waiting.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives, fourteen. Old
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: man with wrinkled female breasts, can see. At the violet hour,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: the evening hour that strives homeward, and brings the sailor
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: home from sea, fifteen the typist home at tea time,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: clears her breakfast, lights. Her stove, and lays out food
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: in tins. Out of the window perilously spread. Her drying
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: combinations touched by the sun's last rays. On the divan
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: are piled, at night her bed, stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs. Perceived the scene,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: and foretold the rest, I too awaited the expected guest. He,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: the young man carbuncular, sixteen arrives. A small house agent's clerk,
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: with one bold stare, one of the low on whom
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: assurance sits. As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire. 17,
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: the time is now propitious, as he guesses. The meal
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: is ended. She is bored and tired, endeavors to engage
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: her in caresses which still are unreproved, if undesired. Flushed
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: and decided, he assaults at once. Exploring hands encounter no defense.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: His vanity requires no response and makes a welcome of indifference.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: and I, Tiresias, have foresuffered all enacted on this same divan,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: or bed. I who have sat by thieves below the wall,
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: and walked among the lowest of the dead, bestows one
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: final patronizing kiss, and gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: She turns and looks a moment in the glass, hardly
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: aware of her departed lover. Her brain allows one half-formed
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: thought to pass. While now that's done, and I'm glad
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: it's over. When lovely woman stoops to folly 18 and
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: paces about her room again, alone. She smooths her hair
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: with automatic hand and puts a record on the gramophone.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: This music crept by me upon the waters 19. And
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: along the strand, up Queen Victoria Street Point 20-0 City City,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: I can sometimes hear. Beside a public bar in Lower
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Thames Street, 21, the pleasant whining of a mandolin. and
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: a clatter and a chatter from within. Where fishmen lounge
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: at noon, where the walls of Magnus Martyr XXII hold.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Inexplicable splendor of Ionian white and gold. The river sweats
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: twenty-three oil and tar. The barges drift with the turning
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: tide red sails. Why'd to leeward swing on the heavy
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: spar the barges wash drifting logs down greenwich reach past
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: the isle of dogs elizabeth and lester 24 beating oars
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: the stern was formed a gilded shell red and gold
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: the brisk swell Rippled both shores southwest wind. Wailala lea
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: walala lialala. Carried downstream the peal of bells. White towers
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: wailala lea walala lialala. Trams and dusty trees. Highbury bore me.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: Richmond and Q25 undid me. By Richmond, I raised my
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: knees supine on the floor of a narrow canoe. My
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: feet are at Moorgate, 26, and my heart under my feet.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: After the event, He wept. He promised a new start.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: I made no comment. What should I resent? On Margate
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Sands Point 27, I can connect. Nothing with nothing. The
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: broken fingernails of dirty hands. My people humble people who
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: expect nothing. La la. To Carthage 28 then I came. Burning, burning, burning, burning. 29.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: O Lord, thou pluckest me out.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: 30.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: O Lord, thou pluckest burning. Chapter 4 Death by Water
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead, forgot the cry of gulls,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: and the deep sea swell, and the profit and loss.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: A current under sea picked his bones in whispers. As
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: he rose, and fell he passed the stages of his
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: age and youth. Entering the Whirlpool Gentile or Jew O
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: you who turn the wheel, and look to windward, consider Phlebas,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: who was once handsome and tall as you. Chapter 5
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: What the Thunder Said After the torchlight red on sweaty faces,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: after the frosty silence in the gardens, after the agony
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: in stony places too, the shouting and the crying, prison
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: and palace and reverberation, of thunder of spring over distant mountains,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: he who was living is now dead. We who were
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: living are now dying with a little patience. Here is
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: no water but only rock. Rock and no water and
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: the sandy road. The road winding above among the mountains
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: which are mountains of rock without water. If there were
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: water we should stop and drink amongst the rock. One
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: cannot stop or think sweat is dry and feet are
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: in the sand. If there were only water amongst the
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: rock dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit. There
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: is not even silence in the mountains, but dry sterile
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: thunder without rain. There is not even solitude in the mountains,
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: but red sullen faces sneer and snarl. From doors of
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: mud-cracked houses if there were water and no rock. If
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: there were rock and also water and water. A spring,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: a pool among the rock. If there were the sound
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: of water, only not the cicada. And dry grass singing.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: But sound of water over a rock. Where the hermit,
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: thrush force sings in the pine, trees drip, drop, drip, drop, drop, drop, drop.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: But there is no water. Who is the third who
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: walks always beside you? Five when I count. There are
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: only you and I together, but when I look ahead
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: up the white road. There is always another one walking
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: beside you gliding wrapped in a brown mantle, hooded. I
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: do not know whether a man or a woman. But
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: who is that on the other side of you? What
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: is that sound high in the air, six murmur of
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: maternal lamentation? Who are those hooded hordes swarming? Over endless plains,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: stumbling in cracked earth ringed by the flat horizon only.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: What is the city over the mountains? Cracks and reforms
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: and bursts in the violet air falling towers. Jerusalem, Athens, Alexandria, Vienna, London. Unreal.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: A woman drew her long black hair out tight and
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: fiddled whisper music on those strings and bats with baby
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: faces in the violet light whistled and beat their wings.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: And crawled head downward down a blackened wall. And upside
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: down in air were towers. tolling reminiscent bells that kept
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: the hours and voices singing out of empty cisterns and
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: exhausted wells. In this decayed hole among the mountains in
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: the faint moonlight, the grass is singing over the tumbled
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: graves about the chapel. There is the empty chapel, only
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: the wind's home. It has no windows, and the door swings.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: Dry bones can harm no one. Only a cock stood
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: on the roof tree, co-co-rico-co-co-rico-seven. in a flash of lightning,
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: then a damp gust, bringing rain. Ganga 8 was sunken,
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: and the limp leaves waited for rain, while the black
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: clouds gathered far distant, over Himvant 0.9 the jungle crouched,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: humped in silence, then spoke the thunder. Duh.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Duh-duh.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: 10 what have we given? My friend, blood shaking my heart.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: The awful daring of a moment's surrender which an age
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: of prudence can never retract by this, and this only,
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: we have existed which is not to be found in
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: our obituaries, or in memories draped by the beneficent spider eleven,
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: or under seals broken by the lean solicitor. In our
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: empty rooms, D.A. Died Vam. I have heard the key
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: twelve turn in the door once, and turn once only
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: we think of the key, each in his prison. Thinking
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: of the key, Each confirms a prison only at nightfall,
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: ethereal rumors. Revive for a moment a broken Coriolanus 13DA. Demiada,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: the boat responded. Gaily, to the hand expert with sail,
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: and o'er the sea was calm, your heart would have responded. Gaily,
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: when invited, beating obedient to controlling hands. I sat upon
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: the shore fishing, with the arid plain behind me, 14,
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: shall I at least set my lands in order? London
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. These fragments
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: I have shored against my ruins. Why then he fit you?
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: The End About the Author Thomas Stearns Eliot, 1888-1965, was
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: an American-born British poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, and playwright
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: who became one of the most influential literary figures of
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: the 20th century. His work played a central role in
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: the development of literary modernism and profoundly influenced the direction
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: of modern poetry. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Eliot received
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: an extensive education in literature and philosophy. He studied at
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Harvard University and later traveled to Europe, where he continued
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: his studies at institutions including the Sorbonne and Merton College, Oxford.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Eliot eventually settled in England, and became a British citizen
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: in 1927. His intellectual and literary career developed within the
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: vibrant cultural environment of early 20th century London, where he
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: became closely associated with other important writers and artists of
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: the modernist movement. His major poetic works include The Love
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Song of Jay, Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men,
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: Ash Wednesday, and Four Quartets. He also wrote influential works
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: of literary criticism and several plays, including Murder in the
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: Cathedral and the Cocktail Party. Eliot's poetry is distinguished by
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: its elusive complexity, fragmentation, multiple voices, and engagement with literary
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: and religious traditions. Rather than abandoning the past in favor
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: of modernity, he frequently brought ancient and modern sources into
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: direct conversation. using historical traditions to illuminate contemporary spiritual and
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: cultural problems. The Wasteland, published in 1922, established Eliot as
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: one of the leading poets of his generation. Its fragmented
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: structure and dense network of references became characteristic features of
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: modernist literature and influenced generations of poets and writers. In
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: addition to his poetry, Eliot had a major career in publishing.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: He worked for the publishing house Faber and Faber, where
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: he became an influential editor and helped bring important literary
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: works to a wider audience. Eliot was awarded the Nobel
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Prize in Literature in 1948 for his outstanding contribution to
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: modern poetry. His work has remained central to literary scholarship
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: and continues to generate extensive discussion concerning modernism, religion, tradition, culture,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: and the nature of poetic expression. He died in London
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: in 1965 at the age of 76. His literary legacy
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: extends across poetry, criticism, drama, and cultural thought. The Wasteland
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: remains his most famous and influential single poem. Its vision
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: of a fragmented civilization searching for renewal continues to resonate
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: with readers. while its innovative form permanently changed the possibilities
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: of modern poetry production credits this audiobook was produced by
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: pigeon publishing house dedicated to the preservation of timeless literature
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: copyright 2026 pigeon Publishing House. All rights to the narration
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: and audio production are reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: Pigeon Publishing House is an independent label dedicated to public
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: domain works. Public domain text used with attribution. Pigeon Publishing
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: House presented The Wasteland. Author T.S. Eliot. Narrated by Henry Wells.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to this audiobook. We hope you
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: enjoyed it.
• 30:41
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