An unnamed, educated individual taking a late afternoon walk through a foggy post-war London. He acts as a sensitive observer, tapping into the psyche of various isolated individuals he encounters. He seeks meaning and connection in a world that feels spiritually empty and culturally fragmented.

A wealthy German countess who lives a lonely, isolated life. She spends her long days reading and traveling south in the winter, preferring the emotional numbness of winter over the painful reawakening brought by spring rains.

A renowned European fortune-teller who uses a wicked pack of cards to predict the future. She foresees a grim reality, observing crowds of people walking in circles and warning her clients to fear death by drowning.

A memory or ghost of a man who served in the military during the war. The narrator questions him about a corpse planted in his garden, asking if the casualty of war will sprout like a seed.

A highly anxious individual waiting for a romantic partner in a lavishly decorated room. Despite her regal surroundings, she suffers from bad nerves and begs her silent partner for conversation and comfort.

A working-class woman physically exhausted by continuous childbearing and her husband's demands. She recently took pills to induce a miscarriage, which severely damaged her health and her teeth.

A soldier returning from four years in the army. He previously gave his wife money for false teeth and expects immediate physical intimacy upon his return.

A practical woman drinking in a London pub. She bluntly advises her friend to get false teeth to maintain her husband's interest, viewing relationships in highly transactional terms.

A working-class woman living in a messy apartment with her drying undergarments piled on a divan. She engages in a mechanical physical encounter and feels only relief when her partner finally leaves, turning on her gramophone for solace.

A small house agent's clerk characterized by his overconfident demeanor. He initiates an emotionless physical encounter with the typist and leaves feeling satisfied with himself despite her complete indifference.

Based on the blind prophet from Greek mythology who lived as both a man and a woman. He exists as an omniscient observer within the poem, burdened by his ability to foresee and understand the hollow nature of the human interactions he witnesses.

An unshaven Smyrna merchant with a pocket full of currants. He casually propositions the narrator in demotic French, representing the commercialized and transactional nature of modern connections.

A once-handsome sailor whose drowned body drifts along the ocean floor. Stripped of his worldly concerns about profit and loss, he represents absolute physical death without the promise of spiritual resurrection.

A wounded monarch reflecting the Arthurian legend of a king entrusted with the Holy Grail. He idles by the water, unable to bring order or vitality back to his ruined, desolate lands.