The Waste Land: “The Burial of the Dead”

Ford Madox Ford
Ted Hughes
his old lady
and her fancy shoes
writing in their Paris flat
where she critically sat
listening to the news
with Ezra Pound
and Dorothy
who slipped underground
he to Venice
stressing clarity
& musical words
absent disparity
Robert Lowell
Robert Frost
at St. Elizabeth's
at any cost
at any hour
giving the inmate
a special flower
James Joyce
had no choice
he always wore glasses
to see
language and brilliant infinity
while Marianne Moore
went quietly approaching her door
but no one was there
and it didn't seem fair
that Edna St. Vincent Millay
who kissed all lips
had the softest fingertips
to write sonnets
which the modernists hated
and continually berated
they loved Eliot, though
especially the flow
of The Waste Land
Pound for Pound
despair
The Burial of the Dead is there.