The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems Quotes

“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.”
― T.S. Eliot, T. S. Eliot Reading: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Others

“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, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“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? -”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“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.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“I should have been a pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“I have measured out my life in coffee spoons.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“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,
I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid. ”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“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”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“It is impossible to say just what I mean!”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes
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
And seeing that it was a soft October night
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question...”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?'/Let us go and make our visit.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“Every street lamp that I pass
Beats like a fatalistic drum,
And through the spaces of the dark
Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“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.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“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?”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“You are invulnerable, you have no Achilles’ heel.
You will go on, and when you have prevailed
You can say: at this point many a one has failed.
But what have I, but what have I, my friend,
To give you, what can you receive from me?
Only the friendship and the sympathy
Of one about to reach her journey’s end.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“I have seen the eternal Footman snicker hold my coat, and snicker. And in short I was afraid...”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“Sovegna vos.
Here are the years that walk between, bearing
Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring
One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing
White light folded, sheathed about her, folded.
The new years walk, restoring
Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
The time. Redeem
The unread vision in the higher dream
While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“Do I dare to eat a peach?”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“Would it have been worthwhile...
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: "That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet”
― T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

“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, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems