Thanks. I especially like the "thief in the night" allusion. JLC W. Freind wrote: > > On Wed, 10 Mar 1999, Yakob Leib ha Kohain [Jacob Leib Cohen, Ph.D.] wrote: > > > I once attended a reading by TSE at the University of Chicago in the > > mid-1950's. During the Q & A at the end, someone asked him what some > > line or other meant, to which he replied (and here I quote from memory, > > but the gist is accurate), "A poet, including myself, often writes from > > inspiration and has no more idea what a poem may mean than its reader." > > Eliot has a slew of lines like that. He observes somewhere that if (!) he > ever republished "Ash Wednesday" he might include an epigraph from Byron's > _Don Juan_: > > Some have accused me of a strange design > Against the creed and morals of the land > And trace it in this poem, every line. > I don't pretend I quite understand > My own meaning when I would be *very* fine; > But the fact is I have nothing planned > Except perhaps to be a moment merry... > > He also has a line about meaning serving as the bone to distract the > watchdog while the poem burgles the house. Both of those offer a pretty > interesting commentary on the crossword puzzle approach many (most?) > critics and readers have brought to _The Waste Land_. > > Bill Freind