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? … (Lines 70-73)
- Alred Prufrock had just left a room full of women pondering to himself whether he should’ve approached them or not. In the lines I’ve chosen, Prufrock is walking down a street during the evening and sees lonely men smoking from their windows. I chose these specific lines because it was one of the few sections where I fully understood what was literally happening. But also I thought these lines were exceptionally ordinary. This is definitely a Literary Modernism trait, when there isn’t a why to it but rather as the professor said “A stream of consciousness”. These lines provided further evidence of isolation in the community because he didn’t just describe the men as men but as lonely men. With the added fact that the women were in one room and men were by themselves, I think that these lines could be how Prufrock felt about himself. He felt isolated since he didn’t approach the women in that room, and can also see himself as one of those lonely men. Although my passage was quite straightforward, I still want to know if there were specific reasons for his word choice. Why did he use dusk? Was there perhaps a connection between Prufrock’s state of mind and the specific time?
The lines you’ve chosen do a great job of suggesting the mood of the poem. As you suggest, there is a strong feeling of loneliness. This reminds us that it’s not just Prufrock who is lonely, that cities can be lonely places for all of their inhabitants. The melancholy mood is reinforced here by the time of day and by the narrowness of the streets. Nice pick!