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Jan 2016
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG BOY

Tom is 9
going on 10

& pens
" a few little verses

about the sadness
of having to

start school
again

every Monday morning."

Already young
Master Eliot

can see
THE WASTELAND

spreading out
before him.

"Monday is the cruellest day
breeding Mathematics

out of the deadened brain!"

"****...**** it...**** ya!"

"Language Thomas...language!"

"Shhhhh ...Tom...shushhhh!"
I comfort him.

"Shanti...shanti...shanti."
Valerie Eliot tells this tale of Tom when asked when he started writing and if there was anything left of such early efforts. This little bric-a-brac of emotion from Eliot's early early youth showed that the child was indeed the father of the man!

Reading INVENTIONS OF THE MAD HARE...showing Eliot's early work in its raw notebook state was a real delight for an Eliotian like me! Valerie's little reflection on Tom's early efforts always amused me and I could imagine him then being of the same demeanour as the Tom of the Waste Land. The poem is a way of giving the little fella a hug 'cos I felt the same way myself about schools and Monday morning.
Donall Dempsey
Written by
Donall Dempsey  Guildford
(Guildford)   
474
     Neon Robinson and mickey finn
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