Personally I like "Low Countries" better than "Netherlands" because using the latter makes the syllable "lands" appear twice in the sentence which is clumsy, does not occur in the French and the two terms are largely synonymous, European nationalisms aside. However that is stylistic rather than factual.

Would Terra Haute be capitalized for both words in standard French? Is it capitalized thusly in the poem? This could easily put an end to this debate. Pardon, je ne parle francais.

On 1/20/06, Carrol Cox <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Terre Haute _has_ to mean, first of all, a small city in the midwest for
any u.s. writer. There is a huge u.s. literature which alludes to or
even bases itself on the life of such cities. A famous u.s. political
slogan is, "But will it play in Peoria," and Pound brings in Peoria at
the climax of one of the early cantos. Probably had it been the
temptation of the pun offered by Terre Haute, Eliot would have used
Peoria for the poem.

Carrol

--
T.R. Stratton
[log in to unmask]