122k views
2 votes
Which two sections of this excerpt from T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock contain a biblical allusion?

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep.. tired... or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
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;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all
If one settling a pillow by her head should say that is not what I meant at all that is not it at all

1 Answer

6 votes

though I have seen my head(grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter I am no prophet

To say: “I am Lazarus. Come from the dead,

User Sophie Mackeral
by
4.4k points