Gerontion

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Gerontion is a poem by T. S. Eliot that was first published in 1920. Eliot scholar Grover Smith says of this poem, "If any notion remained that in the poems of 1919 Eliot was sentimentally contrasting a resplendent past with a dismal present, Gerontion should have helped to dispel it."^[1]

[edit] Wilderness of mirrors

The phrase "wilderness of mirrors" from the poem has been alluded to by many other writers and artists. It has been used as the titles of plays by Van Badham and Charles Evered, of novels by Max Frisch, and of albums by bands such as Waysted. Rock singer Fish entitled his first solo album Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors.

Many commentators believe that James Jesus Angleton took the phrase from this poem when he described the confusion and strange loops of espionage and counter-intelligence, such as the Double Cross System, as a "wilderness of mirrors".^[2][3] It thence entered and has since become commonplace in the vocabulary of writers of spy novels or of popular historical writing about espionage. It was the title of an episode of the television series JAG where the protagonist is subjected to disinformation.^[4]

Another prominent line in the poem, "In depraved May, dogwood and chestnut, flowering judas/To be eaten, to be divided, to be drunk," is the origin of the title of Katherine Anne Porter's first collection of short stories, Flowering Judas and Other Stories (1930.)

[edit] References

1. ^ Grover Smith (1956). T. S. Eliot's Poetry and Plays: A Study in Sources and Meaning. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 
2. ^ Jet Heer. School for spies.
3. ^ Douglas McCollam. "How Chalabi Played the Press", Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 2004. 
4. ^ Peter C. Jones. JAG: "Wilderness of Mirrors". JAG Credits.

[edit] Further reading

• David C. Martin (2003-07-01). Wilderness of Mirrors: Intrigue, Deception, and the Secrets that Destroyed Two of the Cold War's Most Important Agents. The Lyons Press. ISBN 1-58574-824-2.