Conversation Galante (by T.S. Eliot)


T.S. Eliot
T.S. Eliot

Conversation Galante
[from Prufrock and Other Observations, 1917]

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 and imperious
At a stroke our mad poetics to confute—"
    And—"Are we then so serious?" 



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Comments

  • 2/16/2009 9:47 PM chris wrote:
    Like this one too. I pick up a bit of irony or sarcasm in this.. but its very subtle. But then it could be playfulness. I haven't read enough of Eliot to be familiar with his voice... so still trying to figure him out.
    Reply to this
    1. 2/16/2009 11:58 PM Jesus Crisis wrote:

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