Editing On the Beach (novel) (section)

==Title==
The phrase "on the beach" is a [[Royal Navy]] term that indicates retirement from service.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hmsrichmond.org/dict_b.htm |title=Royal Navy Diction & Slang |website=Hmsrichmond.org |access-date=18 September 2012 |archive-date=24 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161024225305/http://www.hmsrichmond.org/dict_b.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The title also refers to [[T. S. Eliot]]'s poem ''[[The Hollow Men]],'' which includes the lines:
{{quote|<poem>
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river.
</poem>}}
Printings of the novel, including the first 1957 edition by William Morrow and Company, New York, contain extracts from Eliot's poem on the title page, under Shute's name, including the above quotation and the concluding lines:
{{quote|<poem>
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.<ref>{{cite book|author=Shute, Nevil|title= On The Beach|url=https://archive.org/details/onbeachs00shut|url-access=registration|publisher= William Morrow and Company|location=New York, NY|edition=First|date= 1957}}</ref>
</poem>}}