Stand on the Highest Pavement
Stand on the Highest Pavement - context Summary
From Prufrock and Other Observations
Published in 1917 within Prufrock and Other Observations, this short lyric stages a social vignette of poised gestures and emotional displacement. The speaker imagines a ritualized parting—flowers flung down, a withheld farewell—and reflects on grace rendered empty by detachment. The poem contrasts outward poses with inner cogitations, suggesting failed intimacy and the persistence of the speaker’s imaginative rehearsals long after the scene has passed.
Read Complete AnalysesStand on the highest pavement of the stair-- Lean on a garden urn-- Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair-- Clasp your flowers to you with a pained surprise-- Fling them to the ground and turn With a fugitive resentment in your eyes: But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair. So I would have had him leave, So I would have had her stand and grieve, So he would have left As the soul leaves the body torn and bruised, As the mind deserts the body it has used. I should find Some way incomparably light and deft, Some way we both should understand, Simple and faithless as a smile and shake of the hand. She turned away, but with the autumn weather Compelled my imagination many days, Many days and many hours: Her hair over her arms and her arms full of flowers. And I wonder how they should have been together! I should have lost a gesture and a pose. Sometimes these cogitations still amaze The troubled midnight and the noon's repose.
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