[00:05.64]Let us go then, you and I,
[00:08.98]When the evening is spread out against the sky
[00:14.27]Like a patient etherized upon a table;
[00:19.64]Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
[00:23.91]The muttering retreats
[00:25.10]Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
[00:29.59]And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
[00:34.63]Streets that follow like a tedious argument
[00:37.98]Of insidious intent
[00:41.42]To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
[00:46.32]Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"
[00:49.97]Let us go and make our visit.
[00:53.89]In the room the women come and go
[00:55.83]Talking of Michelangelo.
[01:00.52]The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
[01:05.75]The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
[01:10.68]Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
[01:14.70]Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
[01:19.54]Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
[01:24.29]Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
[01:30.07]And seeing that it was a soft October night,
[01:34.45]Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
[01:40.78]And indeed there will be time
[01:44.31]For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
[01:47.90]Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
[01:50.96]There will be time, there will be time
[01:54.64]To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
[01:57.98]There will be time to murder and create,
[02:02.59]And time for all the works and days of hands
[02:06.16]That lift and drop a question on your plate;
[02:10.28]Time for you and time for me,
[02:13.72]And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
[02:17.08]And for a hundred visions and revisions,
[02:19.55]Before the taking of a toast and tea.
[02:23.92]In the room the women come and go
[02:26.09]Talking of Michelangelo.
[02:31.09]And indeed there will be time
[02:34.75]To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"
[02:40.39]Time to turn back and descend the stair,
[02:43.95]With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—
[02:47.41](They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!")
[02:51.19]My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
[02:56.06]My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin--
[03:03.49](They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!")
[03:10.05]Do I dare
[03:10.66]Disturb the universe?
[03:15.44]In a minute there is time
[03:17.91]For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
[03:24.76]For I have known them all already, known them all:
[03:29.90]Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
[03:34.12]I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
[03:38.68]I know the voices dying with a dying fall
[03:42.88]Beneath the music from a farther room.
[03:48.74]So how should I presume?
[03:52.60]And I have known the eyes already, known them all—
[03:57.50]The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
[04:00.71]And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
[04:04.29]When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
[04:08.04]Then how should I begin
[04:10.44]To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
[04:13.67]And how should I presume?
[04:16.55]And I have known the arms already, known them all—
[04:20.32]Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
[04:24.21](But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
[04:28.89]Is it perfume from a dress
[04:32.10]That makes me so digress?
[04:36.04]Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
[04:41.16]And should I then presume?
[04:44.27]And how should I begin?
[04:49.64]Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
[04:54.09]And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
[04:57.00]Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ...
[05:05.07]I should have been a pair of ragged claws
[05:07.00]Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
[05:13.28]And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
[05:17.61]Smoothed by long fingers,
[05:21.34]Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
[05:28.43]Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
[05:33.66]Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
[05:37.52]Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
[05:42.43]But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
[05:47.48]Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
[05:53.42]I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
[05:58.79]I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
[06:02.68]And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
[06:10.29]And in short, I was afraid.
[06:15.93]And would it have been worth it, after all,
[06:18.98]After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
[06:21.64]Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
[06:25.43]Would it have been worth while,
[06:27.87]To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
[06:30.58]To have squeezed the universe into a ball
[06:33.00]To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
[06:35.88]To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
[06:38.42]Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"—
[06:43.15]If one, settling a pillow by her head,
[06:45.66]  Should say: "That is not what I meant at all;
[06:51.17]  That is not it, at all."
[06:54.97]And would it have been worth it, after all,
[06:58.24]Would it have been worth while,
[07:00.29]After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
[07:03.95]After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
[07:10.23]And this, and so much more?—
[07:14.50]It is impossible to say just what I mean!
[07:20.06]But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
[07:25.02]Would it have been worth while
[07:27.33]If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
[07:31.68]And turning toward the window, should say:
[07:35.05]"That is not it at all,
[07:38.48]That is not what I meant, at all."
[07:42.99]No I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
[07:47.68]Am an attendant lord, one that will do
[07:51.47]To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
[07:54.80]Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
[08:05.39]Deferential, glad to be of use,
[08:09.17]Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
[08:12.98]Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
[08:16.76]At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
[08:20.92]Almost, at times, the Fool.
[08:27.42]I grow old ... I grow old ...
[08:34.77]I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
[08:39.41]Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
[08:46.00]I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
[08:51.61]I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
[08:58.65]I do not think that they will sing to me.
[09:04.49]I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
[09:09.09]Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
[09:13.68]When the wind blows the water white and black.
[09:21.16]We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
[09:24.33]By sea-girls wreathed with sea**** red and brown
[09:30.44]Till human voices wake us, and we drown.