The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
I edited T.S. Eliot's 1917 poem, 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' down for length and set it to music. S. Sebastian Petsu ad-libs here on the French Horn. This was performed at Kaffa Crossing on December 16, 2006.
Check out the artist page.
Stream all 22 songs for free.
Story behind the song
"Do I dare disturb the universe?"
Lyrics
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). Prufrock and Other Observations. 1917.
1. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (abridged):
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question …
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
And indeed there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;
And in short, I was afraid.
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 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.
Comments
The artist currently doesn't allow comments.
