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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
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9.2
/10
(96
votes)
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S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma per ciň che giammai di questo fondo
Non tornň vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero,
Senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"
Let us go and make our visit.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the windowpanes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the windowpanes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair--
(They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!")
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin--
(They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!")
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all--
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?
And I have known the eyes already, known them all--
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?
And I have known the arms already, known them all--
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?
. . . . .
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? . . .
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
. . . . .
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep . . . tired . . . or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in
upon a platter,
I am no prophet--and here's no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"--
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: "That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all."
And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor--
And this, and so much more?--
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
"That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all."
. . . . .
No!I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous--
Almost, at times, the Fool.
I grow old . . . I grow old . . .
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind?Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
T. S. Eliot
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Read poems about / on: hair, time, women, murder, fog, beach, song, sea, magic, lonely, strength, house, smile, water, red, wind, sky, sleep, woman, rose
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Comments about this poem (The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
by
T. S. Eliot
) |
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comments about this poem (The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by
T. S. Eliot
)
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Yelena M.
(9/19/2009 10:19:00 AM) |
Another translation of the epigraph:
``If I thought that I was speaking to
A soul that one day may return to see the world,
Most probably this flame would cease to flicker;
But as no one ever returns alive from this deep pit,
If this is the truth I hear,
Without fear of dishonor I answer you''
(Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Canto XXVII,61-66)
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Deborah Schuff
(3/28/2009 3:39:00 AM) |
The older I grow, the more I appreciate this poem. Wonderful imagery! Such poignancy for a life lived and soon to be over!
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Márcio Reis
(10/9/2008 8:38:00 PM) |
I think this poem is one of the best poems I've read at the University. Another awesome poem is 'Ode Triunfal' from Fernando Pessoa.
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Robert Quilter
(9/29/2008 9:18:00 AM) |
I had not read this, for such a long time. It reminds me of the grandfather of a long lost childhood friend. On days we 'vacationed' from school, we would go around to grandfather' Chalk's house, eat sweets(candies) and watch never ending horse racing on tv.Grandfather Chalk would, when encouraged with drink, carry on with us a mostly one sided conversation about life, hell, philosophers, past loves and when stretched completly random mutterings, very loosely attached to each other.This was constantly interrupted by the ends of the horse races, in a fit of cursing when his chosen horse came fourth, last or fell.
I enjoyed the visits, enjoyed the hard to follow conversation, learnt a few thingsand cameto appreciate a fe finer things in life.
Yes, i liked this poem.
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Zoe Lawson
(8/14/2008 1:42:00 PM) |
just enjoy the poem. any poem is about u loving it or not. dont try so hard to prove u undersatnd the poet because chances are - you don't. Not many ever will. just enjoy it!
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Kaye Cee
(7/27/2008 8:58:00 PM) |
I do not know what's the issue between Gerome and Shane, but I'd like to tell Shane you keep using 'your' when you should use 'you're.'
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Gerome Ferreira
(12/12/2007 3:48:00 PM) |
I read this poem more than 50 times and everything I find something that I love more than the last time I read it. I put this poem is one of my top 10 of all time.
One of the most beautiful lines I have ever read and the last stanza is phenonmenal
'I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.I do not think that they will sing to me.'
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
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Shane Johnson
(10/20/2007 11:40:00 AM) |
I think your premature at analyzing poetry if you find such a great work to be elementary. Its hard for me to listen to you compare Eliot's work to Sylvester the cat, and not think your utterly ridiculous.
I don't think winning a Nobel prize makes Eliot a great poet, I think his work speaks for itself without mass human recognition.
You should really give this poem a couple more reads before you make such superficial comments.
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Moz B
(9/25/2007 6:26:00 PM) |
That's the point, isn't it, Nick? Prufrock moves between ridiculous and poignant, changing tack every few verses, as if he's laughing at himself every time he gets too serious.
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People who read
T. S. Eliot
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