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T.s. eliot essay
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TS Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is anything but a love song. He uses a few examples of zeitgeist modernism and makes it seem as if there is no hope for love. The second stanza of the poem symbolizes a lonely state, something far from romance. The disturbing walk he suggests, expresses his possible opinion of love. While each is a bit unsettling, he uses several metaphors of the ocean. I assume Eliot is in a building, he used rooms to symbolize being left out of situations. Just after Eliot inserts an Italian piece from Dante’s Inferno, Eliot describes a walk that he would like to take with, I assume, a woman. He wants to take the person to numerous number of places that love would not be found and little romance is in the air. …show more content…
“I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.” From my understanding, Eliot would rather be a crab in the ocean floor where it is acceptable to be alone. The last paragraph of the poem brings about another symbol of the ocean. I imagine the last description of the ocean to be rejection for Eliot. He at first pictures the women as sea like majestic creatures. He seems as if he has tried many times to go into the sea or be involved with women but it may be a circle of recurring failure in which he states, we all drown. The author repeats the same two lines throughout the poem, “In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo” Eliot may be explaining what goes on between the woman near him. He may not be able to relate to. He seems to hear the voice of someone he loves but the voice is later drowning out with music in lines 52-54. This may be the woman he loves speaking to another person until it is then drowned out with music. He is indecisive if he should pursue her before doubting
The overall tone of the poem suggests that Eliot intended the poem to demonstrate one simple theme: to always take the opportunity at the moment which it reveals itself to you, and to never procrastinate
The mood is vital to understanding Eliot’s vision of anguish and despair of the individual that is alienated from society. These moods are expressed throughout with the careful use of imagery, diction and repetition. His distinctive syntax and use of rhythm also enhance the effects of his poetry. Only in stanza III does he actually describe a person and not a body part, as he does in the stanzas before and after. Example of this is “withered leaves about your feet”(7), and “one thinks of all the hands”(21). He also uses the human presence to describe them in the poem, an example of this is, “the smell of steaks”(2) and “to early coffee-stands”(18). He makes inanimate objects the topic of his sentence and more important then the people, for example “ The winter evening settles down/ With smell of steaks in passageways.”(1-2). He makes the winter evening the topic of the sentence, not the human presence. In “of withered leaves about your feet/ and newspapers from vacant lots…”(7-8), he makes the non-living, unimportant objects, the focuses of his sentences.
In this poem, time takes on a distinct meaning. Rather than simply being an external object that lacks control over man, Eliot raises the meaning of this foreign object to a new level. The time provided to the speaker can be equated with his actions. Everyday he is provided a certain amount of time, and day after day he is prepared to "spit out the butt-ends of [his] ways"(Eliot 2461) at the end of the his bland day. The frustration Prufrock builds up is caused by the tiresome repetition of his actions. Furthermore, he feels as though he can not esc...
T.S. Eliot’s breakthrough poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is expertly crafted to have a complex structure with various hidden themes. The poem acts as an inner monologue for the titular character, appearing as lyric-narrative poetry. However, it does appear to lean towards a lyric poem, with the hazy plot consisting of Prufrock describing what his life has been like, in retrospect to speculating on what is to come next. The monologue throughout is melancholy in nature, with Prufrock dwelling on issues such as unrequited love, his frail body, his looming demise, and a dissatisfaction with the modernist world. Eliot uses a variety of metaphor within the poem to showcase Prufrock’s indecision, between being unable to fully live, while
“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.”
Chopin invites the reader to envision the alluring water of the Gulf, which is accentuated by a hyperbole that expresses its radiant effect, as it reflects the million lights of the sun. This evokes feelings of freedom and hope within the reader as Edna realizes that she no longer requires Robert to be happy; therefore establishing the beach as a symbol of hope. She invigorates this belief by describing how “the voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamouring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude” (lines 11-13). When the reader denotes this line, it creates a peaceful mood, for they imagine the radiant sea’s captivating sounds. Although, when they connote this line, they recognize that Chopin uses the sea to symbolizes solitude, and its captivating sounds are alluring her into its abyss.
In this poem, the author tells of a lost love. In order to convey his overwhelming feelings, Heaney tries to describe his emotions through something familiar to everyone. He uses the sea as a metaphor for love, and is able to carry this metaphor throughout the poem. The metaphor is constructed of both obvious and connotative diction, which connect the sea and the emotions of love.
T.S. Eliot’s poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock has a plethora of possible interpretations. Many people argue that the poem represents a man who appears to be very introverted person who is contemplating a major decision in his life. This decision is whether or not he will consummate a relationship with someone he appears to have an attraction to or feelings for. People also debate whether or not Prufrock from the poem is typical of people today. While there are a plethora of reasons Prufrock is not typical of people today the main three reasons are he is very reserved, he overthinks most situations and he tries avoid his problems instead of solve them.
The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, a poem created by the late T.S. Eliot was a poet in the 20th Century (when Europe was at its peak of industrialisation) and this is considered to be one of his highly regarded pieces alongside The Wasteland. This poem is a monologue of the persona of J. Alfred Prufrock, (the speaker of the poem) a middle aged man, intellectual and described with little self-confidence with himself who has problems in dealing with self-image and anxiety. He’s a solitary man who is achingly shy and has little courage, when isolated, he isn’t subjected to a social lifestyle and this halts him when it comes to speaking with a female. The title to me is ironic, Eliot titled it a ‘Lovesong’, therefore, the language used in the poem cements a theme of pessimism, as hardly anything is written on love.
I believe William Golding uses the ocean to represent the lost hope in Ralph’s, the main character”eyes. I say this because when Ralph is standing on the beach, he looks out and sees nothing but endless waters. In the text it says, “The beach between the palm terrace and the water was a thin stick, endless apparently…”.
T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” tells the speaker’s story through several literary devices, allowing the reader to analyze the poem through symbolism, character qualities, and allusions that the work displays. In this way, the reader clearly sees the hopelessness and apathy that the speaker has towards his future. John Steven Childs sums it up well in saying Prufrock’s “chronic indecision blocks him from some important action” (Childs). Each literary device- symbolism, character, and allusion- supports this description. Ultimately, the premise of the poem is Prufrock second guessing himself to no end over talking to a woman, but this issue represents all forms of insecurity and inactivity.
T.S. Eliot has been one of the most daring innovators of twentieth-century poetry. His poem“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, is different and unusual. He rejects the logic connection, thus, his poems lack logic interpretation. He himself justifies himself by saying: he wrote it to want it to be difficult. The dissociation of sensibility, on the contrary, arouses the emotion of readers immediately. This poem contains Prufrock’ s love affairs. But it is more than that. It is actually only the narration of Prufrock, a middle-aged man, and a romantic aesthete , who is bored with his meaningless life and driven to despair because he wished but
Through metaphors, the speaker proclaims of her longing to be one with the sea. As she notices The mermaids in the basement,(3) and frigates- in the upper floor,(5) it seems as though she is associating these particular daydreams with her house. She becomes entranced with these spectacles and starts to contemplate suicide.
They encompass royal thrones, a bar in London, and even a desert; there seems to be no sense of organization for locations the poem is written. A reason behind such extreme settings could be these stories are more mental landscapes in one single observer, which make the understanding of The Waste Land a bit more realistic. Eliot depersonalizes Tiresias, the spectator in The Waste Land. “I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives, Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see” (832, 219-218). Tiresias is given no defined sexual identity and is blind to all things around, thus has a lost sense of identity in society.
T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an ironic depiction of a man’s inability to take decisive action in a modern society that is void of meaningful human connection. The poem reinforces its central idea through the techniques of fragmentation, and through the use of Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s social world. Using a series of natural images, Eliot uses fragmentation to show Prufrock’s inability to act, as well as his fear of society. Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s social world is also evident throughout. At no point in the poem did Prufrock confess his love, even though it is called “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, but through this poem, T.S. Eliot voices his social commentary about the world that Prufrock lives in.