> "Let us go then, you and I,
> When the evening is spread out against the sky
> Like a patient etherized upon a table;
> **Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
> The muttering retreats**
> Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
> And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
> Streets that follow like a tedious argument
> Of insidious intent
> To lead you to an overwhelming question...
> Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?'
> Let us go and make our visit.
>
> In the room the women come and go
> Talking of Michelangelo.
The poem is a meditation on the themes of isolation, anxiety, and the difficulty of human connection. The speaker, J. Alfred Prufrock, is a man paralyzed by fear and indecision, who ultimately chooses to retreat from life's challenges.
The lines you mentioned are part of the poem's opening, where Prufrock invites a nameless "you" to join him on a journey through a desolate urban landscape. This journey, however, is not a literal one but a symbolic one, representing Prufrock's internal struggle and his inability to engage fully with the world around him.