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: There is some of information about Jean Verdenal and T.S. Eliot at this web page: : world.std.com/~raparker/pub/jean.html : and a further hint at this page : http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/thewasteland/exsongs.html : under the heading for "Red Wing." : For those unfamiliar with "Red Wing," it was popular song from 1907 that was turned into a risque soldiers' ditty during the Gallipoli campaign and Eliot was quoting part of it, which he said he had learned from survivors of the Gallipoli campaign. Such a linkage would seem to indicate his interest in talking to people who had been at Gallipoli, presumably in an effort to understand how Verdenal had died. : Missing from the site above is another song take-off on "Red Wing," also about the Gallipoli campaign. It foes: : And the moon shines bright on Charlie Chaplin : His boots are cracking for t' want of blacking : And his old fusty coat is wanting mending : Until they send him to the Dardanelles : All of which places Eliot's use of the song as specifically related to the Darenelles and Gallipoli and hence to the death of Verdenal. : Also, There is a good web site on the ANZAC forces and Gallipoli at : http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/Gallery/Anzac/galli-poli/index.htm : and if you read the entire several-page sequence, and view the photos, then go back and read "The Waste Land" you will see that the poem seems to be specifically about the terrain there, the lack of water there, the deaths in water during the landings there, and so forth. : I have come to believe that the poem's opening line, "April is the cruellest month" refers to ANZAC Day, April 25th, which was celebrated each year and thus would have brought Verdenal's death back to Eliot in full force at that time. : Cordially, : cat yronwode

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