a pound of effort

With the space conversation at something of a natural conclusion, the circle of which you were a part loses cohesion and fragments. Never fear, you’ve encountered similar situations before, and can adapt quite readily to being momentarily adrift. Have a sip of your drink and use the pause offered to take a look at your nearby surroundings. The search criteria we employed back at the bar would suffice here, though you don’t actually need a drink at this point.

Also quite a lot of fun, though not typically found at cocktail parties

As you listen to the conversations in your immediate vicinity, try to pick up on a topic to which you have something to add. No sense in forcing yourself into a bad conversation, as that would be silly, and not much fun at all. You’re at a party, and parties are largely about entertainment, so try to remember that. As luck would have it the trio next to you are talking about The Waste Land, a topic with which we are not unfamiliar.

There’s a lot that could be said about what is likely TS Eliot’s most famous work. Simply understanding this poem of loss, destruction, and possible redemption that grew out of the tragedy of WWI is a challenge that requires a hugely wide and deep range of knowledge, from German to Greek to Shakespeare and the history of London. It is considered by many to be the pinnacle of high modernist poetry. To whit, the final section: “What the Thunder Said,” includes a story out of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad, a Hindu scripture from somewhere around 600 BC. That Eliot marshaled such diverse elements in the service of his art is impressive, to realize that he did, in fact, have mastery of this broad an array of educational disciplines is intimidating in the utmost.

In any case, the Waste Land that we know today might never have come to be if it had not been for the intervention of the other luminary of modernist poetry: Ezra Pound. Along with his own prodigious output and checkered political and social history (which we will address another time), Pound acted as mentor and editor to a number of younger poets, including good old TS. So, try something like this:

Why did he have a British accent? Unclear, but it makes his reading of his own poetry sound quite good

“Sorry, but I couldn’t help overhearing you discussing The Waste Land, which I love.” Temporary annoyance at your intrusion should thus have been soothed to acceptance into a rather small club of people who profess to enjoy modernist poetry. “The thing that really gets me, though, is wondering about what we would think of the poem had Pound not stepped in and edited like mad. Have you seen the original drafts? What a difference. Eliot truly meant it when he essentially dedicated the poem to Pound, declaring him ‘Il miglior fabbro,’ – the finer craftsmen. I suppose you could say it’s a shame that Pound didn’t direct the same editorial eye towards parts of his own later writing.”

Don’t expect anything remotely resembling physical applause. In their heads, though, they loved it. Feel free to wink.