2 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2016
    1. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, And seeing that it was a soft October night, Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

      (1) These lines describe the scene of the evening. They give readers the sense that it is a night that made the writer feel warm inside, as he used phrases such as "soft October night" and "curled once about the house, and fell asleep." However, there is also a dark sense in the background because it is nighttime. The imagery of creeping fog also gives more of an eery feeling.

    2. Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ... I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

      (1) In previous stanzas of the poem, Eliot describes how he has observed everything down to the very precise details {"Arms that are braceleted and white and bare (But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)"} However, now he is questioning whether he should tell of what he's seen, and even claims that he should have been as a pair of ragged claws - in other words, invisible/alone.