I photographed this graffiti in Spring 2003 on St Pancras Way (near what is now The Colonel Fawcett). TS Eliot graffiti is rare enough itself (especially in Camden), but what makes it even more interesting is the additional narrative – and clue as to the artist’s state of mind – provided by the line in French, bottom left: ‘l’amour pur jamais ne trahit’ (pure love never betrays.)
What, we can only wonder, happened before he (or she) hit the spraycan?
From East Coker, part of Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot (Published by Faber & Faber, 1944)
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love for the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.’
3 thoughts on “Wednesday Picture: T.S. Eliot-inspired Camden Graffiti, 2003”
This has hopefully set me up for a surreal, poetic, thoughtful and slightly bonkers day, for which I can only say thankyou.
I used to live around the corner from this place and I always felt sorry for the owners. I like a bit of Urban creativity but this is just a mess scrawled onto what is quite a funky if slightly confusedly designed house.
The poetry matters more than the scribbles, it is carefully lettered and meant to be read surely. I think the writer can be thanked.