To have bitten off the matter with a smile, I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,Īnd I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,Īnd would it have been worth it, after all,Īmong the porcelain, among some talk of you and me, I am no prophet–and here’s no great matter Though I have seen my head brought in upon a platter, (6) Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?īut though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, (5) Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.Īnd the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!Īsleep. I should have been a pair of ragged claws Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?. Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streetsĪnd watched the smoke that rises from the pipes To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?Īnd I have known the arms already, known them all–Īrms that are braceleted and white and bareĪrms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,Īnd when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, I know the voices dying with a dying fallĪnd I have known the eyes already, known them all– ![]() I have measured out my life with coffee spoons Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin–įor decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.įor I have known them all already, known them all:– My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair– To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” That lift and drop a question on your plate ![]() To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet Īnd time for all the works and days of hands Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,Īnd seeing that it was a soft October night,Ĭurled once about the house, and fell asleep.įor the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotelsĪnd sawdust (3) restaurants with oyster-shells: Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, Like a patient etherized (2) upon a table When the evening is spread out against the sky What makes this poem different from a normal love song? Eliot helped to set the modernist fashion for blending references to the classics with the most sordid type of realism, then expressing the blend in majestic language which seems to mock the subject. The latter part of the poem captures his sense defeat for failing to act courageously. One part of himself would like to startle them out of their meaningless lives, but to accomplish this he would have to risk disturbing his “universe,” being rejected. Prufrock understands that he and his associates lack authenticity. The poem is replete with images of enervation and paralysis, such as the evening described as “etherized,” immobile. The poem displays several levels of irony, the most important of which grows out of the vain, weak man’s insights into his sterile life and his lack of will to change that life. Prufrock is a representative character who cannot reconcile his thoughts and understanding with his feelings and will. ![]() His early poetry, including “Prufrock,” deals with spiritually exhausted people who exist in the impersonal modern city. As a young man he suffered a religious crisis and a nervous breakdown before regaining his emotional equilibrium and Christian faith. In the vanguard of the artistic movement known as Modernism, Eliot was a unique innovator in poetry and The Waste Land (1922) stands as one of the most original and influential poems of the twentieth century. Louis and educated at Harvard University, but most of his adult life was passed in London.
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