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20. SON OF MAN: Eliot*: “Cf. Ezekiel II, I.” See Ezekiel* 2:1:
“And [the Lord] said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.”
See also Ezekiel* 37:3, later alluded to at line 186:
“Son of man, can these bones live?”
22. A HEAP OF BROKEN IMAGES: See Ezekiel* 6:4:
“And ...your images shall be broken.”
For the recurrence of brokenness, see note 303. See also Job* 8: 13-17, describing the hypocrite who forgets God as being like a plant without earth and water; at verse 17:
“His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones.”
See note 4 for the recurrence of roots in this poem.
23. THE CRICKET NO RELIEF: Eliot*: “Cf. Ecclesiastes XII, v.” See Ecclesiastes* 12:5 at note 13 (“the grasshopper shall be a burden”).
25. UNDER THE ROCK: See note 28, and see Isaiah* 32:2:
“And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”
26. ARIEL’S SONG, from Shakespeare*, The Tempest 1.2.376-405, a song sometimes referred to by the first line of its second stanza, “Full Fathom Five,” is repeatedly alluded to throughout the poem. See the Appendices, and see lines 26 (come), 48 and 125 (pearls), 119 (music), 182 (weeping), 186 (bones), 192 (father), 257 (waters), 276 (dogs) and 393 (chanticleer), and see notes 167 (fathom) and 266 (spirits).
Shakespeare’s Ariel, a spirit “which art but air” (5.1.21), causes a passing ship to run aground, then brings all its passengers safely to shore. Compare Virgil*, Aeneid 5.89, where Aeneas, having sailed through a tempest, lands on the yellow sands of hospitable Sicilian shores. See also Thomas Heywood, Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels 4 (1635), in which another Ariel converges the elements of earth, water and air as “earth’s great Lord” and one of the princes who rule the waters. See also Heirarchy 1, echoing lines from Augustine’s Confessions (see note 307):
“I sought Thee round about, O Thou my God,
To finde thy aboad.
I said unto the Earth ‘Speake, art thou He?’
She answer'd me,
‘I am not.’
...I askt the Seas, and all the Deepes below,
My God to know.
...I askt the Aire, if that were hee? but know
It told me, No.
...I askt the Heavens, Sun, Moone and Stars; but they
Said ‘We obey.
...We are not God, but we by Him were made.’”
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* see note 0.1
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