{"id":1015,"date":"2026-09-28T19:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/?p=1015"},"modified":"2026-11-08T18:36:37","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T18:36:37","slug":"three-sonnets","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/three-sonnets\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Sonnets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

Three Sonnets<\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
\n
\n

To Geoffrey Cust Faber Esqre<\/em>., as a reply to a ballad entitled<\/em> \u2018Nobody knows<\/p>\n

how I feel about you.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

GEOFFREY! who once did walk the earth like Jove,1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Who on his brow and shoulders once did drape<\/p>\n

The Victor<\/em>\u2019s laurels and the prophet\u2019s Cape<\/em>,2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Ruling the world below, the sky above;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

With monsters of the sea and jungle strove,<\/p>\n

Triumphant, as a God in human shape<\/p>\n

Sustained by juice of juniper and grape,<\/p>\n

Respected by the Trade in Bath and Hove,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Now takes to crooning like a Harlem coon,3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

A blackface Ruth amid the alien corn4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Upon the cob; and in degenerate verse<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Which still declines from bad to worse and worse<\/p>\n

Like Lucifer he falls: from dewy morn<\/p>\n

To noon:5<\/a><\/sup> still falling through the afternoon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

CUST! whose loud martial oaths did once proclaim<\/p>\n

Thee the most virile of the Brownlow clan,<\/p>\n

Captain or Colonel6<\/a><\/sup>\u2014but more than man,7<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Gallant protector of th\u2019oppress\u00e8d dame,8<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

A spotless knight9<\/a><\/sup> without reproach or blame10<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

In Cheapside, Lothbury, or Barbican,<\/p>\n

How can you do it? Answer now: how can<\/p>\n

You be so lost to dignity and shame<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

As caper to the rhythm known as \u201cswing,\u201d11<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

And dance to the lubricious saxophone,12<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

And sway your hips to the barbaric drum?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Can such things be?13<\/a><\/sup> O death where is thy sting,14<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

When drunken Muses on the banjo strum,<\/p>\n

And pipe to negro ditties of no tone?15<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

FABER! of thy great exploits16<\/a><\/sup> \u2019twas not least,<\/p>\n

That thou ofttimes didst twist the mighty tail<\/p>\n

(Alone thou didst it)17<\/a><\/sup> of the basking whale<\/p>\n

And tamed with words the elephantine beast,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

And (what were minor trophies for thy feast)<\/p>\n

Slew the wild albatross, the penguin pale,18<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

And the white liddell hart19<\/a><\/sup> in coat of mail,<\/p>\n

And the sly cat of Bina Gardens fleec\u2019d;20<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Great hunter! whose past glories we dissect,<\/p>\n

To what decay\u2019d estate21<\/a><\/sup> art thou now come,<\/p>\n

Ensiren\u2019d by the Cotton Club22<\/a><\/sup> bassoon,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Enchanted by the Broadway dialect,<\/p>\n

And, masticating Wrigley\u2019s pepsin gum,23<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Expectoratest in the loud spittoon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

[T. S. Eliot]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\nNotes<\/summary>\n
    \n
  1. 1.<\/a>\n

    Cf. \u2018Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour\u2019 (William Wordsworth, \u2018London, 1802\u2019).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. 2.<\/a>\n

    JDH note: \u2018Mr. Victor Gollancz & Mr. Jonathan Cape, two famous publishers of London.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. 3.<\/a>\n

    The term \u2018coon\u2019, now offensive, dates from as far back as the blackface minstrel shows of the 1840s; \u2018coon\u2019 denoted a caricature of an African American. Subsequently, \u2018coon songs\u2019 were written by many composers, both white and black, including Ernest Hogan, author of \u2018All Coons Look Alike to Me\u2019, and even Scott Joplin wrote a coon song entitled \u2018I Am Thinking of My Pickaninny Days\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. 4.<\/a>\n

    John Keats, \u2018Ode to a Nightingale\u2019, ll. 66\u20137:<\/p>\n

    Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,<\/p>

    She stood in tears amid the alien corn<\/p><\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  5. 5.<\/a>\n

    John Milton, Paradise Lost<\/em>, Bk I, ll. 742\u20135:<\/p>\n

    \u2026 from morn<\/p>

    To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,<\/p>

    A summers day; and with the setting Sun<\/p>

    Dropped from the zenith like a falling star<\/p><\/div>\n

    William Morris, \u2018A Garden by the Sea\u2019:<\/p>\n

    I know a little garden-close,<\/p>

    Set thick with lily and red rose,<\/p>

    Where I would wander if I might<\/p>

    From dewy morn to dewy night,<\/p>

    And have one with me wandering.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  6. 6.<\/a>\n

    Milton, Sonnet 8 (1645):<\/p>\n

    Captain or colonel, or knight in arms,<\/p>

    Whose chance on these defenceless doors may seize,<\/p>

    If ever deed of honour did thee please,<\/p>

    Guard them, and him within protect from harms<\/p><\/div>\n

    Geoffrey Cust Faber was descended from the Brownlow and Cust families. Richard Cust (1622\u20131700), who was created a baronet in 1677, was succeeded by his grandson Richard Cust, who married Anne Brownlow, daughter of Sir William Brownlow, 4th baronet: she was the sister and sole heir of John Brownlow, of the family seat of Belton House, near Grantham in Lincolnshire. In more recent years, Peregrine Cust succeeded in 1927 as 6th Baron Brownlow, and died in 1978.<\/p>\n

    Geoffrey Faber served throughout World War I in the 8th Battalion of the London Regiment (Post Office Rifles), in France and Belgium; he was promoted captain in 1916. Another ancestor, Peregrine Cust, MP (1791\u20131873), son of Brownlow Cust, 1st Baron Brownlow, was a lieutenant-colonel.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  7. 7.<\/a>\n

    Lady Macbeth in Macbeth<\/em>, I, vii, ll. 49\u201351:<\/p>\n

    When you durst do it, then you were a man;<\/p>

    And, to be more than what you were, you would<\/p>

    Be so much more the man.<\/p><\/div>\n

    (cited in Poems<\/em> II, 227)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  8. 8.<\/a>\n

    See Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Marriage of Geraint, Geraint and Enid<\/em>, with introd. by G. C. Macaulay (1892), for the story of the jealous, unbearably unkind Geraint and the perfectly faithful Enid \u2013 with which TSE contrasts the marriage of Geoffrey and Enid Faber.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  9. 9.<\/a>\n

    Wolfram von Eschenbach, Lohengrin<\/em> \u2013 trans. Jessie Weston (1894) \u2013 Bk VI, ll. 321\u20134:<\/p>\n

    The fame of thy Table Round<\/p>

    It suffered for the friendship ye with Parzival did swear,<\/p>

    Tho\u2019 I wot well the outward token of a spotless knight he bear.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  10. 10.<\/a>\n

    The heroic, kindly, magnanimous knight Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard (c<\/em>. 1476\u20131524): hailed as \u2018the knight without fear and beyond reproach\u2019 (cited in Poems<\/em> II, 227).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  11. 11.<\/a>\n

    Swing music, a form of jazz, developed in the USA through the 1920s and 1930s, with big bands playing rhythmical arrangements and contrapuntal improvisations. It inspired vigorous dances \u2013 most notably, the Lindy Hop \u2013 and was performed by musicians including Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Jimmy Dorsey.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  12. 12.<\/a>\n

    Shakespeare, Richard III<\/em>, I. i, ll. 12\u201313: \u2018He capers nimbly in a lady\u2019s chamber,\/To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  13. 13.<\/a>\n

    Title of a collection of short stories by Ambrose Bierce (1893). Shakespeare, Macbeth<\/em>, III: iv, ll. 109\u201310: \u2018Can such things be,\/ And overcome us like a summer\u2019s cloud\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  14. 14.<\/a>\n

    I Corinthians<\/em> 15: 55: \u2018O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  15. 15.<\/a>\n

    \u2018Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone\u2019 \u2013 Keats, \u2018Ode on a Grecian Urn\u2019, l. 14.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  16. 16.<\/a>\n

    \u2018great exploits\u2019: Milton, Paradise Lost<\/em>, Bk XI, l. 790 and Samson Agonistes<\/em>, l. 32; Samuel Butler, Hudibras<\/em> III, l. 252.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  17. 17.<\/a>\n

    Shakespeare, Coriolanus<\/em>, V. vi:<\/p>\n

    \u2018Boy\u2019? False hound!<\/p>

    If you have writ your annals true, \u2019tis there<\/p>

    That like an eagle in a dovecote, I<\/p>

    Fluttered your Volscians in Corioles,<\/p>

    Alone I did it. \u2018Boy\u2019!<\/p><\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  18. 18.<\/a>\n

    JDH note: \u2018The \u201cAlbatross\u201d & \u201cPenguin\u201d cheapjack books.\u2019<\/p>\n

    Founded in 1932 by John Holroyd-Reece, Max Christian Wegner and Kurt Enoch, the German \u2018Albatross Books\u2019, based in Hamburg, followed the lead of Tauchnitz in producing mass-market paperbacks. The format was designed by the legendary art director Giovanni Mardersteig, with volumes colour-coded by genre. Allen Lane, founder of the London-based Penguin Books, pursued the same strategy. See Alistair McCleery, \u2018Tauchnitz and Albatross: A \u201cCommunity of Interests\u201d in English-Language Paperback Publishing, 1934\u201351\u2019, The Library<\/em> 7: 3 (1 Sept. 2006), 297\u2013316; Michele K. Troy, \u2018Behind the Scenes at the Albatross Press: A Modern Press for Modern Times\u2019, in The Culture of the Publisher\u2019s Series<\/em>, vol. I: Authors, Publishers and Taste<\/em>, ed. John Spiers (2011); and Lise Jaillant, Cheap Modernism: Expanding Markets, Publishers\u2019 Series and the Avant-Garde<\/em> (Edinburgh: 2017).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  19. 19.<\/a>\n

    JDH note: \u2018Capt. Liddell Hart, a military historian.\u2019<\/p>\n

    Capt. B. H. Liddell Hart (1895\u20131970) was a British soldier, historian and influential military strategist. Faber & Faber published his The Defence of Britain<\/em> (1939).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  20. 20.<\/a>\n

    JDH note: \u2018Mr. H. then residing in Bina Gardens, S.W.5.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  21. 21.<\/a>\n

    I Maccabees<\/em> 3: 43: \u2018They said one to another, Let us restore the decayed estate of our people, and let us fight for our people and the sanctuary\u2019 (cited in Poems<\/em> II, 228).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  22. 22.<\/a>\n

    JDH note: \u2018A famed negro club in New York City.\u2019<\/p>\n

    The Cotton Club, at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue, New York, 1923\u201340, was a whites-only establishment, but many black artists \u2013 including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Fats Waller \u2013 were welcome to perform there.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  23. 23.<\/a>\n

    Wrigley\u2019s Spearmint Pepsin chewing gum \u2013 pepsin aided digestion \u2013 was marketed from 1892.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/details>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Three Sonnets To Geoffrey Cust Faber Esqre., as a reply to a ballad entitled \u2018Nobody knows how I feel about you.\u2019 GEOFFREY! who once did walk the earth like Jove,1 Who on his brow and shoulders once did drape The Victor\u2019s laurels and the prophet\u2019s Cape,2 Ruling the world below, the sky above; With monsters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":15,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1015","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1108,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1015\/revisions\/1108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}