Lovecraft parodies T.S. Eliot

Apparently I still don’t have a full sense of just how prolific a writer Lovecraft was. Everyone knows that he was a letter-writer of almost frightening fertility, perhaps unequalled among literary figures of that rank. But Joshi, whose knowledge of Lovecraft seems to be almost exhaustive, keeps referring to gems I never knew about in genres I never expected. Consider Lovecraft’s parody of T.S. Eliot, entitled “Waste Paper: A Poem of Profound Insignificance.” It’s a vicious parody and I want to look up the whole thing. Joshi quotes the following hilarious samples on pp. 314-5 of his biography:

“I used to sit on the steps of the house where I was born
After we left it but before it was sold
And play on a zobo with two other boys.
We called ourselves the Blackstone Military Band.”

And best of all is the final stanza, my biggest laugh of the week:

“Henry Fielding wrote Tom Jones
And cursed be he that moves my bones.
Good night, good night, the stars are bright
I saw the Leonard-Tendler fight
Farewell, farewell, O go to hell.
Nobody home
in the shantih.”

We can enjoy a parody without disliking the parodied author. I mentioned this on the first OOP blog in connection with the wonderful Rilke parody quoted there. Now, I don’t like Eliot as much Rilke, but there is still a beautiful music to Eliot even though I am no great admirer of the sort of poetic modernism parodied by Lovecraft above.

What I really find appalling in Eliot, of course, is his life. There are good reasons why intelligent Americans who aspire to cultivation will always be drawn toward European models and lifestyles, but as a Midwesterner myself I find it cringe-inducing when a child of 1880’s St. Louis tries to turn himself into a traditionalistic Englishman.

Of course, Lovecraft had numerous affectations of his own– they were just a bit weirder and hence more interesting.