 | Leonard Unger - Biography & Autobiography - 1961 - 50 pages
...major theme of the whole body of Eliot's work. It appears early in The Waste Land with the image of the "hyacinth girl." — Yet when we came back, late,...I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. This theme is developed by various means throughout Eliot's... | |
 | Cleanth Brooks - Literary Criticism - 1963 - 160 pages
...take him out of the realm of time. He remembers the moment with the girl in the hyacinth garden: — Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden....I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. But for all its poignance the experience is abortive.... | |
 | Emory Elliott - History - 1988 - 1312 pages
...tragedy is that of someone who can perceive but cannot act, who can understand but cannot communicate: "I could not/ Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither/ Living nor dead," says the spectator looking into the "heart of light" in the Hyacinth garden. He is like Tiresias, who... | |
 | Antony Easthope - Literary Criticism - 1989 - 240 pages
...garden. But what matters to him is what he saw afterwards in the act of love, on the way back: ... I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. (ll. 38-41) He has encountered something ultimate and... | |
 | Janette Turner Hospital - Fiction - 1990 - 230 pages
...I had to take down the book, so I showed her the passage: 'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; 'They called me the hyacinth girl. ' - Yet when we...I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. "Dellis," I said, as (teacherly, motherly) I combed out... | |
 | Ronald Bush - Literary Criticism - 1991 - 232 pages
...is in some ways one of the most puzzling in The Waste Land: "You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; "They called me the hyacinth girl." - Yet when we...could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Laving nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. Oed' und leer das... | |
 | Edwin Mellen Press - Music - 1991 - 204 pages
...Nibelung, is one of fatigue, listlessness, inattentiveness, ennui, failing eyes and lapsing memory. I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. Oed' und leer das Meer. The allusion is to the Act III... | |
 | Leon Surette - Literary Criticism - 1994 - 342 pages
...who has returned from the hyacinth garden with the girl, her arms full and her hair wet, confesses: I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. (7, 11. 92-5) These remarks have commonly been interpreted... | |
 | A. David Moody - Literary Criticism - 1994 - 412 pages
...sensibility. The centre from which the entire poem radiates is this: 'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; They called me the hyacinth girl.' - Yet when we came...I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. That was, one might say, 'the mere experience at the... | |
 | Philip Kuberski - Literary Criticism - 1994 - 232 pages
...failure of sexuality as a failure of desire, but it also affords a glimpse of non-ego-centric being: I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. (lines 38-41) Although these lines may seem to exemplify... | |
| |
You gave me hyacinths first a year ago; "They called me the hyacinth girl." — Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew... 
