Memory and the Past

Where it surfaces

• II

  The woman's 'buried life' and the speaker's recollection of 'things that other people have desired' highlight the haunting presence of the past.

• Rhapsody on a Windy Night

  The poem repeatedly invokes memory, with the street lamps dissolving 'the floors of memory' and the moon having 'lost her memory,' highlighting the fragmented and unreliable nature of recollection.

• La Figlia Che Piange

  The speaker is compelled by the memory of the woman's gesture and the autumn weather, which haunts his imagination for many days and hours.

• Dans le Restaurant

  The waiter's recollection of a childhood encounter and Phlebas's forgetting of his former life both explore the persistence and erasure of memory.

• The Waste Land

  Memory and desire are stirred by April's rain; the hyacinth girl episode and the recollection of the archduke's sled ride show how the past haunts the present.

• I: The Burial of the Dead

  The chapter is saturated with fragmented memories—the sled ride, the hyacinth garden, and the encounter with Stetson—blurring past and present.

• II: A Game of Chess

  References to Philomel's myth and the repeated line 'Those are pearls that were his eyes' evoke haunting memories and cultural decay.

• IV: Death by Water

  Phlebas forgets his past life—the gulls, the sea swell, and his worldly gains—as death erases memory.

• A Song for Simeon

  Simeon recalls his past deeds—'kept faith and fast, provided for the poor'—and memories linger 'in corners' as he awaits the end.

• Marina

  The speaker struggles to remember and forget the making of a decayed ship, symbolizing past failures and the return of a forgotten life.

• Song: When We Came Home Across the Hill

  The return home and the contrast between the present landscape and the faded wreath evoke a memory of what once was.

• Before Morning

  The reference to 'flowers of yesterday' and the lingering fragrance suggests a connection between present experience and past moments.

• Circe's Palace

  The animals look 'with the eyes of men whom we knew long ago,' evoking haunting memories of the dead.

• On a Portrait

  The figure is described as an 'immaterial fancy' and part of 'tenuous dreams,' suggesting a haunting presence tied to memory or the past.

• Ode: For the Hour That Is Left Us Fair Harvard, with Thee

  The speaker turns from present hopes to thoughts of the past, carrying away memories of Harvard.

• Endnotes

  Allusions to classical and medieval texts, as well as personal memories (e.g., the hermit thrush in Quebec), evoke the persistence of the past.