Morning at the Window (by T.S. Eliot)
T.S. Eliot
Morning at the Window
[from Prufrock and Other Observations, 1917]
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.
* * * * *
I find this one interesting. I've read it several times.. and there is something about it I like. Can't put my finger on just what though. I guess the whole play of things off of the mud or muddy street is interesting..
Thanks hadn't read this by T.S. before.
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Isn't it brilliant? Thank you, JC.
My favourite lines from "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock":
"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;
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."
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I've not ever read much Eliot but this reminds me a bit of the Woolf piece a few entries back. Very evocative of place and time. Based on the imagery and detail alone you can feel that it's an upper class London neighborhood but there's also something about it that' so American--basement, damp souls of housemaids, levels of roofs. They don't seem like the usages of an Englishman.
An excellent poem, and good for such a dreary day here...
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