From The Waste Land

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excerpt by T. S. ELIOT

“Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water

 If there were water we should stop and drink
  Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
  Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand

If there were only water amongst the rock
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit
There is not even silence in the mountains
But dry sterile thunder without rain
There is not even solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
From doors of mudcracked houses

If there were water
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water

Who is the third who walks always beside you?

…

SOURCE: The Project Gutenberg eBook of Poems, by T. S. [Thomas Stearns] Eliot

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Title: Poems
Author: T. S. [Thomas Stearns] Eliot
Release Date: December, 1998 [eBook #1567]
[Most recently updated: November 22, 2021]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
Produced by: Bill Brewer and David Widger