A heap of broken images

A heap of broken images is a fair description of the structure of the poem itself. It is a collection of fragments of (modernist) dramatic monologues
in many different male and female voices, all of whom (according to Eliot) are connected in the persona of Tiresias, the blind prophet of Greek mythology.

Eliot's original working title for the poem was He Do the Police in Different Voices, a quotation from Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. The speaker is complimenting family member who reads her lurid crime stories from the newspaper, and enlivens the performance by assuming different accents for the characters.

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