Sweeney Among the Nightingales Poem by T. S. Eliot

Poetry from Poems by T. S. Eliot.

Poems by T. S. Eliot 1920

T. S. Eliot – Sweeney Among the Nightingales Poem

omoi peplegmai kairian plegen eso

Apeneck Sweeney spreads his knees
Letting his arms hang down to laugh,
The zebra stripes along his jaw
Swelling to maculate giraffe.

The circles of the stormy moon
Slide westward toward the River Plate,
Death and the Raven drift above
And Sweeney guards the hornèd gate.

Gloomy Orion and the Dog
Are veiled; and hushed the shrunken seas;
The person in the Spanish cape
Tries to sit on Sweeney’s knees

Slips and pulls the table cloth
Overturns a coffee-cup,
Reorganized upon the floor
She yawns and draws a stocking up;

The silent man in mocha brown
Sprawls at the window-sill and gapes;
The waiter brings in oranges
Bananas figs and hothouse grapes;

The silent vertebrate in brown
Contracts and concentrates, withdraws;
Rachel née Rabinovitch
Tears at the grapes with murderous paws;

She and the lady in the cape
Are suspect, thought to be in league;
Therefore the man with heavy eyes
Declines the gambit, shows fatigue,

Leaves the room and reappears
Outside the window, leaning in,
Branches of wisteria
Circumscribe a golden grin;

The host with someone indistinct
Converses at the door apart,
The nightingales are singing near
The Convent of the Sacred Heart,

And sang within the bloody wood
When Agamemnon cried aloud,
And let their liquid droppings fall
To stain the stiff dishonoured shroud.

The Common Nightingale Illustration

The Common Nightingale Illustration

Poems by T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot – Gerontion Poem
T. S. Eliot – Burbank with a Baedeker : Bleistein with a Cigar Poem
T. S. Eliot – Sweeney Erect Poem
T. S. Eliot – A Cooking Egg Poem
T. S. Eliot – Le Directeur Poem
T. S. Eliot – Mélange adultère de tout Poem
T. S. Eliot – Lune de Miel Poem
T. S. Eliot – The Hippopotamus Poem
T. S. Eliot – Dans le Restaurant Poem
T. S. Eliot – Whispers of Immortality Poem
T. S. Eliot – Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service Poem
T. S. Eliot – Sweeney Among the Nightingales Poem
T. S. Eliot – The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Poem
T. S. Eliot – Portrait of a Lady Poem
T. S. Eliot – Preludes Poem
T. S. Eliot – Rhapsody on a Windy Night Poem
T. S. Eliot – Morning at the Window Poem
T. S. Eliot – The Boston Evening Transcript Poem
T. S. Eliot – Aunt Helen Poem
T. S. Eliot – Cousin Nancy Poem
T. S. Eliot – Mr. Apollinax Poem
T. S. Eliot – Hysteria Poem
T. S. Eliot – Conversation Galante Poem
T. S. Eliot – La Figlia Che Pianga Poem