“Do I dare
/Disturb the universe?
/In a minute there is time
/For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse”
The “coffee spoons” line gets a lot of love, deservedly, but that passage is what sticks with me, that and the callback later in the poem “Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?”
My metric for good poetry is that it should still echo in my mind after I’ve stopped reading it, I’ve stopped thinking about it, and I’ve moved on to other things. By that metric “Prufrock” is a good poem, certainly the best of Eliot’s poetry that I’ve read.
“Do I dare /Disturb the universe? /In a minute there is time /For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse”
The “coffee spoons” line gets a lot of love, deservedly, but that passage is what sticks with me, that and the callback later in the poem “Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?”
My metric for good poetry is that it should still echo in my mind after I’ve stopped reading it, I’ve stopped thinking about it, and I’ve moved on to other things. By that metric “Prufrock” is a good poem, certainly the best of Eliot’s poetry that I’ve read.
Also, those passages may be of interest to LW—there might be some clues about akrasia.