[OFB Cafe] Who's Still on Here?

[saki]

Timothy Butler wrote:
>> An interesting question! My inclination is Christ or the Holy Spirit,
>> but as you point out it may be a little out of time. I must check on
>> Eliot's progress towards his eventual "Anglo-Catholic" beliefs, but  
>> this
>> would fit (but so would other interpretations- one of "The Kindly  
>> Ones"
>> perhaps!).
> 
> 	I've been thinking about it, and I think Eliot is referring to Christ  
> (or the Holy Spirit). It makes sense. It also makes sense that his  
> conversion would start to appear in his poetry before anything public  
> -- especially in a poem written as he regrouped his frayed psyche and  
> sought for a new center of reality.
> 
> 	Surely not the Kindly Ones!
> 
> 	"I've never seen
>        a tribe which could produce this company,
>        a country which would admit with pride
>        that it had raised them without paying a price,
>        without regretting all the pain they cost."
> 
>> "The endless cycle of ideas and action,
>> Endless invention, endless experiment,
>> Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
>> Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
>> Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word"
> 
> 	Indeed. "The world turns and the world changes/But one thing does not  
> change."
> 
> 	On another point, somewhat relatedly, Terence, is your nickname on  
> here by any chance related to a certain man who liked to talk to his  
> wine cups?
> 
> 	"And fear not lest Existence closing your
> 	Account, and mine, should know the like no more;
> 	The Eternal Saki from that Bowl has pour'd
> 	Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour."
> 

Very well done- I normally have to explain! Actually, the verse (not in 
all versions, as in your quote) from which I took it is:-

"And when like her, oh, Saki, you shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the Grass,
And in your joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made One--turn down an empty Glass!"

And, I have to confess, also in honour of another excellent writer, 
Hector Hugh Munro, who chose it as his pen-name. Sadly he was of that 
generation that disappeared into the abyss of the Western Front in the 
Great War.

If you are not familiar with his work try:

http://www.users.bigpond.com/burnside/saki.htm

"She was a good cook as good cooks go, and, as cooks go, she went."

And "Madame was not best pleased at being contradicted on a professional 
matter, and when Madame lost her temper you usually found it afterwards
in the bill."

gives you a flavour!

Terence