Lil and Albert
 |
| Walter Sickert, Off to the Pub |
The scene suddenly cuts to a working-class London pub, where a cockney woman is reporting a conversation she has had with Lil, whose husband Albert has just been "demobbed" (demobilised, or returned to civilian life) after four years' service in the Great War. The speaker has warned Lil that she will now have to make more of an effort with her appearance, or risk losing her husband to a more attractive rival.
Lil is powerless, and exemplifies the downtroddden lives of women throughout history. She is only 31, but is already exhausted by motherhood, and her health has been ruined by pills taken to terminate another pregnancy; her teeth are rotting. She is wasting away in the cage of her marriage just as surely as the Sibyl is withering in her bottle.
Waste Land Limericks
ReplyDeleteI
In April one seldom feels cheerful;
Dry stones, sun and dust make me fearful;
Clairvoyantes distress me,
Commuters depress me —
Met Stetson and gave him an earful.
II
She sat on a mighty fine chair,
Sparks flew as she tidied her hair;
She asks many questions,
I make few suggestions —
Bad as Albert and Lil — what a pair!
III
The Thames runs, bones rattle, rats creep;
Tiresias fancies a peep —
A typist is laid,
A record is played —
Wei la la. After this it gets deep.
IV
A Phoenician called Phlebas forgot
About birds and his business — the lot,
Which is no surprise,
Since he’d met his demise
And been left in the ocean to rot.
V
No water. Dry rocks and dry throats,
Then thunder, a shower of quotes
From the Sanskrit and Dante.
Da. Damyata. Shantih.
I hope you’ll make sense of the notes.
— Wendy Cope