Burbank With A Baedeker: Bleistein With A Cigar Analysis

Poems1920Tra-la-la-la-la-la-laire--nil nisi divinum stabileest; caetera fumus--the gondola stopped, the oldpalace was there, how charming its grey and pink--goats and monkeys, with such hair too!--so thecountess passed on until she came through thelittle park, where Niobe presented her with acabinet, and so departed.Burbank crossed a little bridgeDescending at a small hotel;

Princess Volupine arrived,They were together, and he fell.Defunctive music under seaPassed seaward with the passing bell

Slowly: the God HerculesHad left him, that had loved him well.The horses, under the axletreeBeat up the dawn from Istria

With even feet. Her shuttered bargeBurned on the water all the day.But this or such was Bleistein's way:A saggy bending of the knees

And elbows, with the palms turned out,Chicago Semite Viennese.A lustreless protrusive eyeStares from the protozoic slime

At a perspective of Canaletto.The smoky candle end of timeDeclines. On the Rialto once.The rats are underneath the piles.

The jew is underneath the lot.Money in furs. The boatman smiles,Princess Volupine extendsA meagre, blue-nailed, phthisic hand

To climb the waterstair. Lights, lights,She entertains Sir FerdinandKlein. Who clipped the lion's wingsAnd flea'd his rump and pared his claws?

Thought Burbank, meditating onTime's ruins, and the seven laws.

.: :.

This poem is set in Venice Italy. The language appears simple but the difficulty lies in Eliots Archaic references. The perspective of the voice appears unstable. The beginning of the poem means Only the Divine is sure, the rest is smoke describing the instability of the time in which the poem was written.

"chicago semite viennese." could possibly refer to Eliot himself.

Princess Volupine and other women in Eliots poems appear dangerous, Eliot has been accused of being tortured by a sense of emasculation.

| Posted on 2007-06-03 | by a guest