{
 "id": "t-s-eliot/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock",
 "title": "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock",
 "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": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": "S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse / A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, / Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. / Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo / Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero, / Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.",
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1915,
  "venue": "Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (June 1915)",
  "note": "Collected in Prufrock and Other Observations (1917).",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Love_Song_of_J._Alfred_Prufrock",
   "https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/1580188/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock-by-t-s-eliot"
  ]
 },
 "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": 131,
  "n_stanzas": 20,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 82,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Let us go then, you and I,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the evening is spread out against the sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a patient etherized upon a table;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The muttering retreats",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Streets that follow like a tedious argument",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of insidious intent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To lead you to an overwhelming question.⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let us go and make our visit.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the room the women come and go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Talking of Michelangelo.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the windowpanes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the windowpanes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And seeing that it was a soft October night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And indeed there will be time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rubbing its back upon the window panes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There will be time, there will be time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There will be time to murder and create,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And time for all the works and days of hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That lift and drop a question on your plate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Time for you and time for me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And time yet for a hundred indecisions,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And for a hundred visions and revisions,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before the taking of a toast and tea.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the room the women come and go",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Talking of Michelangelo.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And indeed there will be time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Time to turn back and descend the stair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a bald spot in the middle of my hair⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Do I dare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Disturb the universe?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a minute there is time",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For I have known them all already, known them all:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know the voices dying with a dying fall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the music from a farther room.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So how should I presume?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And I have known the eyes already, known them all⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then how should I begin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And how should I presume?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And I have known the arms already, known them all⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arms that are braceleted and white and bare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is it perfume from a dress",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That makes me so digress?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And should I then presume?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And how should I begin?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of lonely men in shirtsleeves, leaning out of windows?⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I should have been a pair of ragged claws",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smoothed by long fingers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Asleep⁠ ⁠… tired⁠ ⁠… or it malingers.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I am no prophet⁠—and here’s no great matter;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in short, I was afraid.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And would it have been worth it, after all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would it have been worth while,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To have bitten off the matter with a smile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To have squeezed the universe into a ball",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To roll it toward some overwhelming question,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If one, settling a pillow by her head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That is not it, at all.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And would it have been worth it, after all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would it have been worth while,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And this, and so much more?⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It is impossible to say just what I mean!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would it have been worth while",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And turning toward the window, should say:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“That is not it at all,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That is not what I meant, at all.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Am an attendant lord, one that will do",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To swell a progress, start a scene or two,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deferential, glad to be of use,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Politic, cautious, and meticulous;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At times, indeed, almost ridiculous⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Almost, at times, the Fool.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I grow old⁠ ⁠… I grow old⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I do not think that they will sing to me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I have seen them riding seaward on the waves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Combing the white hair of the waves blown back",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the wind blows the water white and black.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We have lingered in the chambers of the sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till human voices wake us, and we drown.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}