“In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo”
The standalone couplet first appears between the first and second stanza on lines 13 and 14. The infringing rhyme can either be intended as an obstruction in mood between eerie stanzas or as a bridge of unknown time passing between surreal scenes. The first stanza ends with, “Let us go and make our visit”(12). The word ’us’ makes the action personal to the narrator as well as engaging to the audience. But the free-standing rhyme shows no signs of the narrator connecting with anyone. The women in the room, If anything, seem distant. They just come and go. The duad then repeats again between stanzas three and four on lines 34 and 35. The repetition of the standalone couplet is a faultless technique in provoking extensive analysis of the message beyond the rhyme. Regarding the literal sense, the duad is overly candid. That is if you know who Michelangelo is. Yet it is extremely vague in detail. In respect to addressing the artist, A footnote in the text states, “Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), famous Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, and poet; here, merely a topic of fashionable conversation”(541). Michelangelo is best known for his painting of the Sistine Chapel along with his expertise in sculpture and architecture. His artistry in such fields could perhaps be the Michelangelo talk circulating the room. Perhaps his work encompasses the room. An interesting note is the sense of only women. It is interesting Prufrock only acknowledges the women. Is this because there are truly no men or that Prufrock is only interested and concentrated on the women who come and go. Nevertheless, in the literal sense, the women are forever changing but Michelangelo is an unfading name that will be mentioned ‘in the room’ until doomsday. Thus, it is indefinite.
Thanks for these observations about these famous lines. You’re right that the “us” is interesting here – this would bring us, as readers, inside Prufrock’s predicament.