Prufrock and Other Observations | Page 6

corners.?She smoothes the hair of the grass.?The moon has lost her memory.?A washed-out smallpox cracks her face,?Her hand twists a paper rose,?That smells of dust and old Cologne,?She is alone?With all the old nocturnal smells?That cross and cross across her brain.?The reminiscence comes?Of sunless dry geraniums?And dust in crevices,?Smells of chestnuts in the streets,?And female smells in shuttered rooms,?And cigarettes in corridors?And cocktail smells in bars."
The lamp said,?"Four o’clock,?Here is the number on the door.?Memory!?You have the key,?The little lamp spreads a ring on the stair,?Mount.?The bed is open; the tooth-brush hangs on the wall?Put your shoes at the door, sleep, prepare for life."
The last twist of the knife.
Morning at the Window
They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,?And along the trampled edges of the street?I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids?Sprouting despondently at area gates.
The brown waves of fog toss up to me?Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,?And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts?An aimless smile that hovers in the air?And vanishes along the level of the roofs.
The Boston Evening Transcript
The readers of the Boston Evening Transcript?Sway in the blind like a field of ripe corn.?When evening quickens faintly in the street,?Wakening the appetites of life in some?And to others bringing the Boston Evening Transcript,?I mount the steps and ring the bell, turning?Wearily, as one would turn to nod good-bye to Rochefoucauld If the street were time and he at the end of the street,?And I say, "Cousin Harriet, here is the Boston Evening Transcript."
Aunt Helen
Miss Helen Slingsby was my maiden aunt,?And lived in a small house near a fashionable square?Cared for by servants to the number of four.?Now when she died there was silence in heaven?And silence at her end of the street.?The shutters were drawn and the undertaker wiped his feet-- He was aware that this sort of thing had occurred before.?The dogs were handsomely provided for,?But shortly afterwards the parrot died too.?The Dresden clock continued ticking on the mantelpiece,?And the footman sat upon the dining-table?Holding the second housemaid on his knees--?Who had always been so careful while her mistress lived.
Cousin Nancy
Miss Nancy Ellicot?Strode across the hills and broke them?Rode across the hills and broke them--?The barren New England hills?Riding to hounds?Over the cow-pasture.
Miss Nancy Ellicott smoked?And danced all the modern dances;?And her aunts were not quite sure how they felt about it,?But they knew that it was modern.
Upon the glazen shelves kept watch?Matthew and Waldo, guardians of the faith,?The army of unalterable law."
Mr. Apollinax
When Mr. Apollinax visited the United States?His laughter tinkled among the teacups.?I thought of Fragilion, that shy figure among the birch-trees, And of Priapus in the shrubbery?Gaping at the lady in the swing.?In the palace of Mrs. Phlaccus, at Professor Channing-Cheetah’s He laughed like an irresponsible foetus.?His laughter was submarine and profound?Like the old man of the seats?Hidden under coral islands?Where worried bodies of drowned men drift down in the green silence, Dropping from fingers of surf.?I looked for the head of Mr. Apollinax rolling under a chair, Or grinning over a screen?With seaweed in its hair.?I heard the beat of centaurs’ hoofs over the hard turf?As his dry and passionate talk devoured the afternoon.?"He is a charming man"--"But after all what did he mean?"-- "He has pointed ears ... he must be unbalanced,"--?"There was something he said that I might have challenged." Of dowager Mrs. Phlaccus, and Professor and Mrs. Cheetah?I remember a slice of lemon and a bitten macaroon.
Hysteria
As she laughed I was aware of becoming involved in her laughter and being part of it, until her teeth were only accidental stars with a talent for squad-drill. I was drawn in by short gasps, inhaled at each momentary recovery, lost finally in the dark caverns of her throat, bruised by the ripple of unseen muscles. An elderly waiter with trembling hands was hurriedly spreading a pink and white checked cloth over the rusty green iron table, saying: "If the lady and gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden, if the lady and gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden ..." I decided that if the shaking of her breasts could be stopped,some of the fragments of the afternoon might be collected, and I concentrated my attention with careful subtlety to this end.
Conversation Galante
I observe: "Our sentimental friend the moon?Or possibly (fantastic, I confess)?It may be Prester John’s balloon?Or an old battered lantern hung aloft?To light poor travellers to their distress."?She then: "How you digress!"
And I then: "Some one frames upon the keys?That exquisite nocturne, with which we explain?The night and moonshine; music which we seize?To body forth our own vacuity."?She then: "Does this refer to me?"?"Oh no, it is I who am inane."
"You, madam, are the eternal humorist?The eternal enemy of the absolute,?Giving our vagrant moods the slightest twist?With your air indifferent