The nymphs are departed

There is a subtle link between part two of the poem, which ends with Ophelia's last words in Hamlet before she is drowned in a river, and part three, which begins with a bleak description of the River Thames.  

Hamlet's words in Act III, scene i:
  
The fair Ophelia! - Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered...

are recalled in Eliot's the nymphs are departed. The nymphs of 1922 and their rich boyfriends have enjoyed their last summer party on the banks of the river, leaving behind cigarette ends, empty bottles, food containers; and silk handkerchiefs, which were used (apparently) as rather upmarket condoms.

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