{
 "id": "t-s-eliot/portrait-of-a-lady",
 "title": "Portrait of a Lady",
 "poet": "T. S. Eliot",
 "poet_slug": "t-s-eliot",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Prufrock and Other Observations",
 "book_slug": "prufrock-and-other-observations",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 1,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": "Thou hast committed⁠— / Fornication: but that was in another country, / And besides, the wench is dead.",
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1915,
  "venue": "Others: A Magazine of the New Verse (September 1915)",
  "note": "Collected in Prufrock and Other Observations (1917).",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_a_Lady_(poem)"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/t-s-eliot_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1567",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009592742",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1321",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001835100",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100218549",
   "https://archive.org/details/poems19091925030616mbp",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedpoems1900elio",
   "https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20200705",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemswritteninea00elio",
   "https://theworld.com/~raparker/exploring/tseliot/works/poems/eliot-harvard-poems.html"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 123,
  "n_stanzas": 14,
  "n_parts": 3,
  "longest_line_chars": 61,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    2
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    2,
    8
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    8,
    14
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Among the smoke and fog of a December afternoon",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You have the scene arrange itself⁠—as it will seem to do⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With “I have saved this afternoon for you”;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And four wax candles in the darkened room,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Four rings of light upon the ceiling overhead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An atmosphere of Juliet’s tomb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prepared for all the things to be said, or left unsaid.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We have been, let us say, to hear the latest Pole",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Transmit the Preludes, through his hair and fingertips.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“So intimate, this Chopin, that I think his soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should be resurrected only among friends",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some two or three, who will not touch the bloom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That is rubbed and questioned in the concert room.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—And so the conversation slips",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among velleities and carefully caught regrets",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through attenuated tones of violins",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mingled with remote cornets",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And begins.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“You do not know how much they mean to me, my friends,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And how, how rare and strange it is, to find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(For indeed I do not love it⁠ ⁠… you knew? you are not blind!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How keen you are!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To find a friend who has these qualities,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who has, and gives",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those qualities upon which friendship lives.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How much it means that I say this to you⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Without these friendships⁠—life, what cauchemar!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the windings of the violins",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the ariettes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of cracked cornets",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Inside my brain a dull tom-tom begins",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Absurdly hammering a prelude of its own,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Capricious monotone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That is at least one definite “false note.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "—Let us take the air, in a tobacco trance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Admire the monuments",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Discuss the late events,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Correct our watches by the public clocks.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then sit for half an hour and drink our bocks.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now that lilacs are in bloom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She has a bowl of lilacs in her room",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And twists one in her fingers while she talks.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ah, my friend, you do not know, you do not know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What life is, you should hold it in your hands”;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Slowly twisting the lilac stalks)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“You let it flow from you, you let it flow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And youth is cruel, and has no remorse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And smiles at situations which it cannot see.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I smile, of course,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And go on drinking tea.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Yet with these April sunsets, that somehow recall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My buried life, and Paris in the Spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I feel immeasurably at peace, and find the world",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To be wonderful and youthful, after all.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The voice returns like the insistent out-of-tune",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a broken violin on an August afternoon:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I am always sure that you understand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My feelings, always sure that you feel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sure that across the gulf you reach your hand.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“You are invulnerable, you have no Achilles’ heel.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You will go on, and when you have prevailed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You can say: at this point many a one has failed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But what have I, but what have I, my friend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To give you, what can you receive from me?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only the friendship and the sympathy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of one about to reach her journey’s end.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I shall sit here, serving tea to friends.⁠ ⁠…”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I take my hat: how can I make a cowardly amends",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For what she has said to me?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You will see me any morning in the park",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reading the comics and the sporting page.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Particularly I remark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An English countess goes upon the stage.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A Greek was murdered at a Polish dance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Another bank defaulter has confessed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I keep my countenance, I remain self-possessed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Except when a street piano, mechanical and tired",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reiterates some worn-out common song",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the smell of hyacinths across the garden",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Recalling things that other people have desired.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are these ideas right or wrong?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The October night comes down; returning as before",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Except for a slight sensation of being ill at ease",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I mount the stairs and turn the handle of the door",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And feel as if I had mounted on my hands and knees.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“And so you are going abroad; and when do you return?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But that’s a useless question.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You hardly know when you are coming back,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You will find so much to learn.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My smile falls heavily among the bric-a-brac.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Perhaps you can write to me.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My self-possession flares up for a second;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is as I had reckoned.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“I have been wondering frequently of late",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(But our beginnings never know our ends!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why we have not developed into friends.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I feel like one who smiles, and turning shall remark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Suddenly, his expression in a glass.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My self-possession gutters; we are really in the dark.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“For everybody said so, all our friends,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They all were sure our feelings would relate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So closely! I myself can hardly understand.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We must leave it now to fate.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You will write, at any rate.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps it is not too late.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I shall sit here, serving tea to friends.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And I must borrow every changing shape",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To find expression⁠ ⁠… dance, dance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a dancing bear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cry like a parrot, chatter like an ape.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let us take the air, in a tobacco trance⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well! and what if she should die some afternoon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Afternoon grey and smoky, evening yellow and rose;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should die and leave me sitting pen in hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the smoke coming down above the housetops;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Doubtful, for quite a while",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not knowing what to feel or if I understand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or whether wise or foolish, tardy or too soon⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would she not have the advantage, after all?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This music is successful with a “dying fall”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now that we talk of dying⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And should I have the right to smile?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}