{"id":1017,"date":"2026-09-28T19:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/?p=1017"},"modified":"2026-11-08T18:36:37","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T18:36:37","slug":"vers-pour-la-foulque","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/vers-pour-la-foulque\/","title":{"rendered":"Vers Pour la Foulque"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

Vers Pour la Foulque1<\/a><\/sup><\/h1>\n

Feuillet d\u2019Album<\/em>2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

\n
\n

Allons nous promener, si tu veux.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Nous allons diriger nos pas<\/p>\n

Du c\u00f4t\u00e9 de chez Bina:<\/p>\n

Cherchons le numero vingt-deux.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

N\u2019as-tu pas vu, que c\u2019est grotesque,<\/p>\n

Ce paysage aux plates-bandes ternes?<\/p>\n

C\u2019est un pays de balivernes!<\/p>\n

Il n\u2019est pas lieu moins pittoresque.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Le facteur m\u00eame grince des dents<\/p>\n

Et prend un aspect plus farouche<\/p>\n

En passant par ce quartier louche5<\/a><\/sup>\u2014<\/p>\n

Un faubourg des moins all\u00e9chants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

C\u2019est un pays de bambochades,<\/p>\n

O\u00f9 par des portiques de Willett6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Des boniches insolentes vous guettent<\/p>\n

En attendant vos s\u00e9r\u00e9nades.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Peu de vivant qui se remue\u2014<\/p>\n

Un terrain vague et d\u00e9sol\u00e9:<\/p>\n

On voit des chats avari\u00e9s,<\/p>\n

Et m\u00eame parfois une ancienne grue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Mais derri\u00e8re une vaste fen\u00eatre<\/p>\n

O\u00f9 s\u2019\u00e9tale un vase de n\u00e9nuphars,7<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Ecoute! des chuchotements \u00e9pars<\/p>\n

Et des rires fous. C\u2019est lui! l\u2019\u00eatre<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Immonde! c\u2019est la Tarentule<\/p>\n

Aui yeux multiples, an v\u00e9nin sur,<\/p>\n

Qul nous fait, d\u2019un regard impur,<\/p>\n

Un geste que le strabisme annule.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Allons nous promener, si tu veux;<\/p>\n

Nous allons filer droit jusqu\u2019\u00e0<\/p>\n

Ces ch\u00e9tifs jardins de Bina:<\/p>\n

Cherchons le num\u00e9ro vingt-deux.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Nous allons nous donner la peine8<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

De nous soulager\u2014et sonner;9<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Laissons nos culs se ventiler<\/p>\n

En attendant la Madeleine<\/em>.10<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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

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

    TSE to Emily Hale, 31 Aug. 1935: \u2018Geoffrey has a feeling of inferiority because he can\u2019t talk French, and because he fancies that there is such a thing as a Brilliant Society (represented for him by Ottoline [Morrell], of whom he is terrified) in which he would feel a fool. He has a kind of uneasy awe of Morley and me, because he thinks we are quick-witted, and that he isn\u2019t, and that is an unnecessary barrier.\u2019<\/p>\n

    JDH (22 Bina Gardens, London SW5) to TSE, 17 Nov. 1937: \u2018My Dear Tom: I was overcome with amusement \u2013 and by the brilliance of \u201cVers pour La Foulque\u201d. For sheer virtuosity, and indeed for everything else, it surpasses all the poems in the canon! I showed them to Louis Roch\u00e9, a secretary of Embassy, who was here last night, and asked him to make any necessary corrections. I find that the few he suggested have been incorporated in the improved and emended version which came this morning. But there are still two small revisions needed to make the verses perfect. \u201cTu vois bien, que c\u2019est bien grotesque\u201d [l. 5] is apparently not French as she is spoke. Roch\u00e9 suggests: \u201cNe vois pas combine c\u2019est grotesque\u201d. Also, \u201cgrincer\u201d being an intransitive verb, the first line of the third stanza must read: \u201cLe facteur m\u00eame grince des<\/em> dents\u201d [l. 9]. \u201cPeu de vivant\u201d, by the way, which you\u2019ve now altered, was incorrect. I hope to hear in due course if there are any more poems, apart from this one, to be added to the list I sent to F.V.M. You see I\u2019m not in a funny mood this morning \u2013 so I\u2019ll just subscribe myself\/Aillevard, duc et pair.\u2019<\/p>\n

    Aillevard \u2013 sometimes Jean-Baptiste Aillevard \u2013 was one of JDH\u2019s many secret sobriquets. John Smart, Tarantula\u2019s Web<\/em>, 105: \u2018Letters between Hayward and Eliot form a tapestry of allusion to a writer whose work they both loved, and Eliot could quote by heart: Arthur Conan Doyle. They both relished the world of detectives and aliases \u2013 Hayward was Jean-Baptiste Aillevard, Jonny Heywald, Miss Eleanor Gallielax, Headmistress of St Winifred\u2019s School, Eastbourne, or Tarantula; Eliot, Sherlock Holmes, J. Hussein B.A. (Calcutta), Tom Possum \u2013 and so on. The correspondence is full of references to disguises, mysterious plots, and letters written on plain pages in case they fell into the wrong hands.\u2019<\/p>\n

    (On 3 Mar. 1936 TSE was informed by S. R. Sheppard, Clerk of the Hospital, Hill End Hospital for Mental and Nervous Disorders, St Albans, Herts., that an acquaintance of his named Frederick Giles Porlock had been admitted to the hospital as a voluntary patient on 2 Mar. \u2018His case appears to be one of delusional insanity of the uncommon form known as Aillevard\u2019s Syndrome. It takes the form of entropic diathesis commonly observed in those who have suffered from acute psychological trauma \u2026 At the moment he is entirely pre-occupied with a system of numerical cypher \u2013 a characteristic of the disease.\u2019 But the letter may of course be apocryphal.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. 2.<\/a>\n

    Feuillet d\u2019album<\/em> \u2013 \u2018Album leaf\u2019 \u2013 signifies an occasional piece, usually for piano or voice, by a classical composer, such as Ludwig van Beethoven or Hector Berlioz.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. 3.<\/a>\n

    \u2018Si tu veux\u2019 is a phrase that Laurent Tailhade likes to use (as in his poem \u2018Si tu veux, prenons un fiacre\u2019 in \u2018Quatorzains d\u2019\u00e9t\u00e9\u2019).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. 4.<\/a>\n

    JDH note: \u2018The residence of Mr. H.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. 5.<\/a>\n

    Laurent Tailhade rhymes \u2018douche\u2019 with \u2018farouche\u2019 in \u2018Hydroth\u00e9rapie\u2019, ll. 1\u201313, in Po\u00e8mes aristophanesques<\/em>, 28.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  6. 6.<\/a>\n

    JDH note: \u2018Wm. Willett (temp. XIX cent) creator of \u201cPont St. Dutch\u201d & \u201cEtruscan Tudor\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  7. 7.<\/a>\n

    \u2018N\u00e9nuphar\u2019 crops up in several of Tailhade\u2019s poems: see Po\u00e8mes aristophaniques<\/em>, Paris, 1914. See Tailhade, \u2018Et vous garde Cypris de bl\u00e9mes n\u00e9nuphars\u2019, in \u2018Vielles actrices\u2019, 39; \u2018Plure d\u2019hymen du n\u00e9nuphar\u2019, in \u2018Parabase symbolique\u2019, 159; and \u2018Sons corps d\u2019affranchi grec; blanc comme un n\u00e9nufar\u2019, in \u2018\u00c9pigramme\u2019 (l. 7), in Po\u00e8mes \u00e9l\u00e9giaques<\/em> (Paris, 1907), 57.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  8. 8.<\/a>\n

    In King\u2019s HB\/H\/2, TSE wrote \u2018Perhaps best omitted\u2019 against this ninth stanza.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  9. 9.<\/a>\n

    An even more vulgar variant is at HB\/H\/2a: \u2018De chier sur le seuil. Sonnez!\u2019 (\u2018To shit on the doorstep. Ring!\u2019) \u2013 with TSE\u2019s autograph comment in the margin of the stanza: \u2018Perhaps best omitted.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  10. 10.<\/a>\n

    JDH note: \u2018One Magdalen, a rude skivvy at no. 22. Afterwards in a convent but was removed.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/details>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Vers Pour la Foulque1 Feuillet d\u2019Album2 Allons nous promener, si tu veux.3 Nous allons diriger nos pas Du c\u00f4t\u00e9 de chez Bina: Cherchons le numero vingt-deux.4 N\u2019as-tu pas vu, que c\u2019est grotesque, Ce paysage aux plates-bandes ternes? C\u2019est un pays de balivernes! Il n\u2019est pas lieu moins pittoresque. Le facteur m\u00eame grince des dents Et […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":17,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1017","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1017","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=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1110,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1017\/revisions\/1110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}