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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cassiel666" data-source="post: 405655" data-attributes="member: 5205">Do you swear to tell the Prufrock, the whole Prufrock, and nothing but the Prufrock?This is for the many Prufrock enthusiasts, who, chances are, have never seen it.  It was edited from the final (published) text of the poem."Prufrock's Pervigilium"Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets  And seen the smoke which rises from the pipes  Of lonely men in shirt sleeves, leaning out of windows.And when the evening awoke and stared into its blindnessI heard the children whimpering in cornersWhere women took the air, standing in entries --Women, spilling out of corsets, stood in entries  Where the draughty gas-jet flickered  And the oil cloth curled up stairs.  And when the evening fought itself awakeAnd the world was peeling oranges and reading evening papersAnd boys were smoking cigarettes, drifted helplessly together  In the fan of light spread out by the drugstore corner  Then I have gone at night through narrow streets,  Where evil houses leaning all togetherPointed a ribald finger at me in the darkness  Whispering all together, chuckled at me in the darkness.And when the midnight turned and writhed in feverI tossed the blankets back, to watch the darknessCrawling among the papers on the tableIt lept to the floor and made a sudden hissAnd darted stealthily across the wallFlattened itself upon the ceiling overheadStretched out its tentacles, prepared to leapAnd when the dawn at length had realized itselfAnd turned with a sense of nausea, to see what it had stirred:The eyes and feet of men --I fumbled to the window to experience the worldAnd to hear my madness singing, sitting on the kerbstone[A blind old drunked man who sings and mutters,With broken boot heels stained in many gutters]And as he sang the world began to fall apart...I should have been a pair of ragged clawsScuttling across the floors of silent seas...-- I have seen the darkness creep along the wallI have heard my madness chatter before dayI have seen the world roll up into a ballThen suddenly dissolve and fall away.ENDAs you can see the pentameter is less polished and he has taken the rhyming inside the line in this section.Here's another Eliot poem you've probably never seen, even if you think you've seen them all.  This one is entirely unique; he never published or wrote anything else like it."The Love Song of St. Sebastian"I would come in a shirt of hairI would come with a lamp in the nightAnd sit at the foot of your stair;I would flog myself until I bledAnd after hour on hour of prayerAnd torture and delightUntil my blood should ring the lampAnd glisten in the light;I should arise your neophyteAnd then put out the lightTo follow where you lead,To follow where your feet are whiteIn the darkness toward your bedAnd where your gown is whiteAnd against your gown your braided hair.Then you would take me inBecause I was hideous in your sightYou would take me in without shameBecause I should be deadAnd when the morning cameBetween your breasts shoud lie my head.I would come with a towel in my handAnd bend your head beneath my knees;Your ears curl back a certain wayLike no one's else in all the world.When all the world shall melt in the sun,Melt or freeze,I shall remember how your ears were curled.I should for a moment lingerAnd follow the curve with my fingerAnd your head beneath my knees --I think that at last you would understand.There would be nothing more to say.You would love me because I should have strangled youAnd because of my infamy;And I should love you the more because I had mangled youAnd because you were no longer beautifulTo anyone but me.ENDYou may commence discussion <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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