“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.”
— T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Reading those lines at age 18 in Poetry 101 at Emory University, tears sprang to my eyes.
Reading them at age 70 still brings tears, bittersweet tears…
Ever more sweet than bitter.
Beautiful words!
Julie, We’ve been so lucky to have full lives enriched by reading and poetry. I had a table cloth for a long time hung on my hall wall. Earl McKey the artist, gave it to me. It was the cloth that he’d worked on for over 10 years, while he took care of his mother. When they finally had to put her in assisted living, he touched the cloth up to look like the view outside his mother’s room. At the bottom of the cloth was Waker Percy’s quote, “A full life is full of pain.” But of course that’s what we want “a full life.” My granddaughter, Julie, loved the painting, so I gave it to her. So glad you’ve come to live with me. ro