In line 5, the “waves” are
(a) so big they reach the speaker’s window
(b) a metaphor for the fog that carries the images of faces down below up
to the speaker at his window
(c) part of the poem’s bigger conceit that compares the scene below to
an ocean
(d) part of a hypothetical situation thought up by the speaker
(e) a hallucination that characterizes the speaker as depressed and
delusional
passage 3. t. s. eliot, “morning at the window”
th ey are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,
and along the trampled edges of the street
i am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
sprouting despondently at area gates.
th e brown waves of fog toss up to me
twisted faces from the bottom of the street,
and tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts
an aimless smile that hovers in the air
and vanishes along the level of the roofs.