200. THE SOLDIERS’ SONG: Eliot*: “I do not know the origin of the ballad from which these lines are taken: it was reported to me from Sydney, Australia.” For the song's origin, see Thurland Chattaway, Red Wing (1907):
“Now the moon shines bright on pretty red-wing
the breeze is sighing
the nightbird’s crying.”
Australian soldiers corrupted the song in Gallipoli, Turkey, where Mrs. Porter was a favorite brothel madame among the troops; see C. M. Bowra, The Creative Experiment (1949), and see Ernest Raymond, Tell England: A Study in a Generation (1922):
“Oh the moon shines bright on Mrs Porter
And on her daughter,
A regular snorter;
She has washed her neck in dirty water
She didn’t oughter,
The dirty cat.”
Gallipoli is also where Eliot’s friend Jean Verdenal died at war (see note 42).
201. FOOT-WASHING: See Wagner, Parsifal (note 8) 3: At the end of his quest, Parsifal, the chief Grail knight (see note 0.2), has his feet washed in holy water to “be free from stain; from devious wandering’s dust.” He then continues:
“My feet hast thou anointed,—
Anoint my head, thou venerable knight,
That e’en today as king the guild may hail me.”
See also Paul Verlaine, Parsifal (1886; tr. John Gray 1893):
He heals the dying king, he sits upon the throne.”
This also alludes to the Lenten event of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples during the Last Supper. See John* 13:1-17.
202. CHILDREN’S VOICES: Eliot*: “V. Verlaine, Parsifal.” Gray's translation (note 201):
And oh! the chime of children's voices in the dome.
Compare Whitman†, Memories 6:
“...with dirges through the night, with the thousand voices
rising strong and solemn.”
Children’s voices also sing out at line 385. For other voices see notes 321.5, 385, 388 and 400. See also Sweeney’s birds at note 198. Compare these voices to the nightingale’s song at lines 203-206 and at line 103, again alluding to the story of Tereus’s rape of Philomela (again, see lines 99-103).
203. BIRD SONGS: Lines 203-204 return to the nightingale’s song from line 103. For other bird songs, see the hermit thrush (line 357) and the rooster (line 393), and see their comparison to song syllables at note 172.5. As to interpreting these songs, see notes 185 and 200, reflecting our human nature to project meaning into the songs we hear and distort them to our own purpose.
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* see note 0.1 †see note 2
