The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Another of my favorite poems is T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”  I don’t usually care for this kind of poetry — Eliot’s most famous poem, “The Waste Land,” leaves me cold — but I love this one.  It’s very long, so I won’t reprint it all, but here are the last few stanzas:

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 have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

I love the rhythm, the sound, and meaning of this poem — so much so, in fact, that I used part of the last line, “Till Human Voices Wake Us,” as the title to one of my short stories.  (Unfortunately, two decades after I used the title, some scoundrels in the movie industry decided to give their film the same title.  My story and the movie are nothing alike, but for the record, I thought of it first!)