Incidental Poetry

Abstract

During his second period at Harvard University Eliot concentrated on his philosophical studies, and seems to have found little time for poetry, producing only one poem which he chose to include in his Collected Poems. This is the haunting lyric ‘La Figlia che Piange’, the title (suggesting grief, not tears) being that of a sculptured design which Eliot regretted having missed when he was in Italy. In the girl whom he poses for a parting with her lover, there may have been subsumed a recollection of Emily Hale with the sunlight in her hair. His poetic persona imagines how he would have the grieving lovers part, the girl with her hair over her arms, and her arms full of flowers, the lover leaving as the soul departs from the torn, bruised body. Aesthetically distanced and detached, he hopes to find some wonderfully deft, controlled way for the lover to leave, paradoxically ‘Simple et sans foi comme un bonjour’ like that imagined by Laforgue in ‘Petition’ (Derniers Vers). The girl haunts his imagination for days, but he counts himself fortunate to have seen a subject to which he would like to give an artistic pose and gesture.