Public-domain ebook
Ash-Wednesday
by T. S. Eliot
Language: en4,496 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #78023.
About this book
Ash‑Wednesday presents itself as a dense, lyrical meditation rather than a conventional narrative. The opening lines summon a surreal tableau of three white leopards beneath a juniper tree, a voice that enumerates organs and bones, and a series of cryptic dialogues between a Lady in white, a divine speaker, and the very marrow of existence. The text proceeds through a succession of fragmented visions, staircases that twist into dark mouths, figures in blue and green playing antique flutes, and a chorus of unnamed “silences” that echo across desert and garden alike. The poem’s structure is episodic, moving from one symbolic scene to the next, each segment marked by shifts in tone and image rather than plot development.
The voice is unmistakably modernist, echoing T. S. Eliot’s penchant for collage, mythic allusion, and fragmented consciousness. Its language is dense, often abstract, and the rhythm varies from chant‑like repetitions to abrupt, prose‑like passages. Readers who appreciate challenging, avant‑garde poetry, those drawn to Eliot’s later experiments, to symbolic mysticism, or to works that foreground sound and texture over linear storytelling, will find this piece a rewarding, if demanding, experience.
Who appears in Ash-Wednesday
- LadyElegant woman in flowing white gown, serene expression, hair loosely gathered, 1920s aristocratic style
- GodMajestic figure robed in luminous white, radiant aura, long beard, seated on ethereal throne, timeless authority
The opening · free to read
V
If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent If the unheard, unspoken Word is unspoken, unheard; Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard, The Word without a word, the Word within The world and for the world; And the light shone in darkness and Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled About the centre of the silent Word.
O my people, what have I done unto thee.
Where shall the word be found, where will the word Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence Not on the sea or on the islands, not On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land, For those who walk in darkness Both in the day time and in the night time The right time and the right place are not here No place of grace for those who avoid the face No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice
Will the veiled sister pray for Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee, Those who are torn on the horn between season and season, time and time, between Hour and hour, word and word, power and power, those who wait In darkness? Will the veiled sister pray For children at the gate Who will not go away and cannot pray: Pray for those who chose and oppose
O my people, what have I done unto thee.
Will the veiled sister between the slender Yew-trees pray for those who offend her And are terrified and cannot surrender And affirm before the world and deny between the rocks In the last desert between the last blue rocks The desert in the garden the garden in the desert Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered apple-seed.
O my people.
This is the time of tension between dying and birth The place of solitude where three dreams cross Between blue rocks But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away Let the other yew be shaken and reply.
Blessèd sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden, Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still Even among these rocks, Our peace in His will And even among these rocks Sister, mother And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea, Suffer me not to be separated
And let my cry come unto Thee.
Original spelling and punctuation have been retained. New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.
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