I suppose there is the odd eccentric usage of raw
eggs as in curing hangovers, or for generating new
progeny, but most every egg, be it fresh or otherwise
is used for cooking. It's hard to see how the exceptional
meanings could be a determinant here.

The poem is hard boiled. It is those words, unchangeable,
unless someone comes up with a later edition of the poem
clearly written by E.

P.

-----Original Message-----
From: Carrol Cox [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 1:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Posting TSE's poetry


> Peter Montgomery wrote:
>
>
> The egg isn't just coked, it's hard bolied by now.
>

But in my understanding, the egg was never cooking to begin with.

"Cooking egg" is in fact ambiguous. It _usually_ means, I believe, an
egg that is not fresh, and thus is only good for cooking purposes (as in
cakes, sauces, etc.), not "an egg that is being cooked as we speak."

I don't see how the second sense could make sense in Eliot's title. That
is, the title indicates that the poem is _not_ going to deal with
anything fresh and worthwhile in itself but merely with a mixture of
things which, however useless by themselves, produce something by their
mixture.

Carrol