For example, " When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table " ( lines 2 3 ), the " sawdust restaurants " and " cheap hotels, " the yellow fog, and the afternoon " Asleep . . . tired . . . or it malingers " ( line 77 ), are reminiscent of languor and decay, while Prufrock's various concerns about his hair and teeth, as well as the mermaids " Combing the white hair of the waves blown back / When the wind blows the water white and black, " show his concern over aging.
