In his 1909 poem "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock" T.S. Eliot included, not once but twice, these lines:
"In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo."
I wonder whether, if T.S. (Tom to his friends) had lived in Rochester, New York, when he wrote his poem instead of in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a student at Harvard, he might have written the following instead:
"In the room the women come and go
Talking of Lake Ontario."
In the same poem, he also wrote:
"I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me."
I wonder why I was unaffected by these lines when I was in my twenties but now that I am in my eighties I find them deeply moving, their poignancy causing my eyes to fill with tears.
On a more lighthearted note, I read recently that men have three hairstyles -- parted, unparted, and departed. J.Alfred Prufrock, take note.
I wonder on this, the vernal equinox, spring having arrived in the northern hemisphere today, March 20, 2023, at 5:24 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time), why the low temperature at my house this morning was 24°F (-4.44°C). It just doesn't seem right, somehow.
I suppose that since I am prone to wander (Lord, I feel it), I will probably continue to wonder.
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<b>Some of my earliest memories include...</b>
Seeing my mother wash the outside of the windows in our third-floor apartment at 61 Larch St. in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, by sittin...
Perhaps with the experiences of age we also gain an appreciation of the emotions words can summon.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Emma, for hanging in there and commenting even though I haven't responded to any comments on the last three posts until today. I am sort of back but there are additional events on my calendar. I'm sure you are right about "the experiences of age" as it does give a certain perspective and "long view" of things that the younger crowd does not yet have.
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