The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

I have a book of selected poems of T.S. Eliot that I have never read before. It is an old copy of my partner’s and annotated as all good books should be. Though I am trying to ignore the penciled thoughts of the young woman I have not known, but whose elder self I spend my evenings with.

This is a little gem for me right now. The reflections of this man in middle age.
Some lines that shine without much reflection or diving into the whole follow—-

“Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky….”

“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, …”

“Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. …”

“Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;….”

“And in short, I was afraid. …”

“I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each

I do not think they will sing to me. ….”