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From: chism@reed.UUCP (Christine N Chism)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: Quote (Help!)
Message-ID: <1451@reed.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-May-85 18:55:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: reed.1451
Posted: Fri May  3 18:55:44 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 5-May-85 01:59:01 EDT
References: <5296@tekecs.UUCP> <316@mhuxi.UUCP>
Reply-To: chism@reed.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE)
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 22

In article <316@mhuxi.UUCP> dsg@mhuxi.UUCP (GREEN) writes:
>> This has always been one of my favorite literary quotes, having seen it
>> first in some reading I did in 8th grade.  But, alas, I can't even remember
>> the book or author.  It's always bugged me through the years, not being able
>> to remember where it came from.  Maybe someone can help me out.
>> 
>> The quote:
>> 
>>                "So, this is how the world ends...
>>                 not with a bang, but with a whimper." 
>
>It is from a T. S. Elliot poem.  I don't remember the title but it is
>*not* from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".  Any T. S. Elliot
>anthology will have it.

I think it is from a cycle of poems called 
*The Waste Land*.  As I remember it, it goes: 
     This is the way the world ends
     This is the way the world ends
     This is the way the world ends,
     Not with a bang, with a whimper.
It's a really depressing poem.