The following is from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," by T.S. Eliot.
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
What is conveyed by the imagery in this passage?
The evening is lifeless and listless, like a sedated, unconscious person.
The two people in the poem will travel to see a loved one who is very ill.
The sky's darkness is like that experienced by an anesthetized person.