This love song, while heartfelt, hardly seems to be a tool for seduction. To me it reads as though he is mentally processing the poem after lines 11-12 "Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit." My impression is that he is attending one of these "one-night cheap hotels" with a woman while reminiscing about his past. Perhaps he is having an internal debate about sleeping with a prostitute. Lines 37-39 says, "And indeed there will be time to wonder, 'Do I dare?' and, 'Do I dare?' Time to turn back and descend the stair." This leads me to think that he is already in the room with the woman.
He appears to be an old man remembering his past saying "I am no prophet- and here's no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker." He has already lived his life, and so he doesn't need to ask about what the future holds. He has already experienced life's adventures and been with many women. This last bit is implied in lines 55 and 62. "And I have known the eyes already, known them all." "And I have known the Arms already, known them all." He has experienced love and passion and now the sexual encounters with the women are lackluster and empty. He cannot share his life with them and so he monologues internally during his encounter with them. Alfred cuts presents them as young and unable to understand his journey through life, but he spends the night with them anyway. He contemplates why he compromises in lines 65 and 66. "Is it perfume from a dress that makes me so digress?" He is caught up in their beauty and so struggles to ignore their inability to fulfill his needs beyond a physical level.
It's possible I misunderstood this whole poem, as I usually do with poems so feel free to correctly interpret for me. What do you think the yellow fog or smoke is meant to represent? I was unsure if perhaps the woman was in the shower, or they were smoking, or even if they were burning incense.
I really enjoyed reading your comment, I felt this poem was particuarly hard to interpret what the author wanted us to get from it. However, for the yellow fog I took that to mean something bold, although it is hard to say exactly why the word yellow is being repeated so often in lines 15-25 I feel the hidden meaning is that it is foreshadowing his future, for the fog and smoke represent his life now, and the color yellow signifies a bold change that is about to happen, perhaps the sun beaming through the fog? I don't know if that helps, or if it is right but that is what I got!
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