| 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 | 5 |
| 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 … | 10 |
| 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 window-panes, | 15 |
| The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes | |
| 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, | 20 |
| 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; | 25 |
| 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; | 30 |
| 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 | 35 |
| Talking of Michelangelo. /excerpt from ts eliot's 'the love song of j. alfred prufrock' this is a brilliant poem, check out the whole things here (i think i am on a ts eliot/time kick and im feeling inspired again!) |
