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The love song of J Alfred Prufrock as a modern poem
5 literary devices in the love song of j alfred prufrock
What is the poem “the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock about
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T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” draws attention to the idea that time is of the essence. On the surface, Prufrock is portrayed as a man who is incapable of making decisions and lacks self-confidence. This is evident through his passive nature, where he continuously delays having to talk to women because he believes there is enough time. Written in the era of modernism, the reader is capable of unraveling that the poem’s true purpose was not only to show Prufrock’s inability to make decisions when it comes to love, but to show the desolation that one faces in times of a modernistic transition. Eliot depicts Prufrock’s transition phase through a gloomy and solemn tone, incorporating imagery, metaphor and synecdoche to fully illustrate Prufrock’s despondent state of mind and spirit.
Prufrock invites us, the reader, through his journey of self-evaluation and self-examination, as he say’s “LET us go then, you and I.” He uses personification in lines 5, “the muttering retreats” to describe his surroundings as if it were alive. The "retreats" are not "muttering," but it seems that way because they are the kinds of places where you would run into muttering people. Also, the restless nights mentioned in lines 4 and 6, “let us go, through certain half-deserted streets/Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels” allude to modernism—young people walking around at night, in and out of one-night cheap hotels. Another indication of the party and city-life is how observing Prufrock appears to be as he recalls seeing “sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells” (7). Being that sawdust is supposed to soak up liquid that is spilled on dance floors of restaurants, and oysters are aphrodisiacs, this suggests modernity.
The use of i...
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...p-of-the-surface interpretation of this poem, of a man who is unable to make decisions for himself, avoids answering the questions at hand, whilst time continues to move, aging him and making him depressed. Another interpretation is that because of the time period that Eliot is writing in, Prufrock feels suffocated yet very isolated by the transition to Modernism, as it is not something is comfortable with or used to before. The use of metaphor allowed us to realize there were innuendos in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” whereas through imagery, the reader can visualize the movement of time through Prufrocks visual changes in appearance.
Works Cited
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. T.S. Eliot. 1920. Prufrock and Other Observations." 1. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. T.S. Eliot. 1920. Prufrock and Other Observations. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is about a timid and downcast man in search of meaning, of love, and in search of something to break from the dullness and superficiality which he feels his life to be. Eliot lets us into Prufrock's world for an evening, and traces his progression of emotion from timidity, and, ultimately, to despair of life. He searches for meaning and acceptance by the love of a woman, but falls miserably because of his lack of self-assurance. Prufrock is a man for whom, it seems, everything goes wrong, and for whom there are no happy allowances. The emptiness and shallowness of Prufrock's "universe" and of Prufrock himself are evident from the very beginning of the poem. He cannot find it in himself to tell the woman what he really feels, and when he tries to tell her, it comes out in a mess. At the end of the poem, he realizes that he has no big role in life.
Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." An Introduction to Poetry. 13th ed. Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966. 369-372. Print.
"(10) which is never identified, asked, or answered in the poem. This "question" is somehow associated with his social status, but both its ambiguity and Prufrock's denial to even ask "What is it? " (11) gives some insight into his state of internal turmoil. Prufrock's dissatisfaction with his personal appearance is evidence of an underlying lack of self-confidence. Not only is he unhappy with the way he looks, having "to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet," but he is constantly afraid of what others will have to say about him.
The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a poem that was written by T. S Eliot. The poem introduces the character, Prufrock, as a man who is very pessimistic about everything and is incapable of change. Prufrock sees the society he lives in as a place that is full of people who think alike, and he thinks he is different from them. Though Prufrock, realizes that the society he is associated with needs a change and have more people who think differently, but the fact that he is very concerned about what people would think of him if he tries to speak up to make a change or that he would be ignored or be misunderstood for whatever he says hindered him from expressing himself the way he would like to. Prufrock then decides not to express himself in order to avoid any type of rejection. In the poem, Prufrock made use of several imagery and metaphor to illustrate how he feels about himself and the society he is involved in. Prufrock use of imageries and
Eliot begins the poem with the original Italian text of Dante’s epic, “The Divine Comedy.” It contains six lines borrowed from “Inferno” that are verbal quotes from a character in the eighth circle of hell, stating he will confide in Dante on the basis that Dante should not be able to escape hell, and therefore cannot divulge his secrets to the people still living (Alighieri, 61-66). This reflects J. Alfred’s willingness to lament to the reader since the reader has no means to share his secrets with those in his world. With the reader being Dante in this analogy, it puts Prufrock in the position of Guido da Montefeltro, the damned soul speaking to Dante. While Guido is not alive, his soul is technically still living, having to endure torture for his mortal misdeeds. Similar to how Prufrock is a searing soul inside a decaying body, evidenced by the lines “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair” (Eliot, 40) and “(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)” (Eliot, 44). Meanwhile, Prufrock’s inner psyche is tormented by thoughts such as “though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed” (Eliot, 81) and saying his place in life is “Almost, at times, the Fool.” (Eliot, 118). These descriptions of himself develop the idea that Prufrock is likewise in a figurative Bolgia of hell, unwilling or unable to climb out, and so, like Guido, confesses his woes. Prufrock is, however, physically more alive than
By a correct reading of "Prufrock," I mean a reading consistent with the central theme of the poet's belief made mute because the poet lives in a culture of unbelief--that is, the "silence" of the poetic vision in modernity. Prufrock renounces his inherited, romantic role as "poet as prophet" and renounces poetry's role as a successor to religion. The future of poetry may have once been immense, but that future no longer exists for Prufrock, who is faced not only with the certainty of the rejection of his poetic vision but also with a situation in which there are no grounds for rhetoric: "That is not what I meant at all. / That is not it, at all." Fear of rejection leads Prufrock to the ultimate silencing of the prophet and hero within himself, to being "a pair of ragged claws." He cannot share his poetic vision of life: to do so would threaten the very existence of that life. Paradoxically, not to share his light, his "words among mankind," threatens the loss ...
Eliot, T.S.. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1996. 2459-2463.
T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. ed. M. H. Abrams New York, London: Norton, 1993.
There are a few instances in the poem that refer to Prufrock as an introverted person distinguishing him from typical people today. For instance, in the poem Prufrock says “I
Handler 356-7. " The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is one of the most influential poems of the twentieth century (Williams 49). It is certainly not a love song like any that has been written before. The second and third lines shock the reader because of their unusual imagery that would be out of place in a traditional love poem, describing the setting sunlit sky as looking "like a patient etherised upon a table" (Eliot 3). This "etherised" outside world is the key to understanding all of Prufrock's views.
First, Eliot weaves several layers of symbolism into Prufrocks’s narrative. This ambiguity shows largely through the vehicle of the yellow fog, which Eliot personifies with cat-like characteristics using phrases such as, “…rubs its back…rubs its muzzle on the window-panes” and “…curled once about the house, and fell asleep” in reference to the mist (Eliot). This feline depiction of the city smog creates an eerie setting which serves to further the tone of unsteadiness in Prufrock’s ramblings. The seeping movements of the fog also mirror the uncontrolled movements of Prufrock’s thoughts and his polluted self-concept which causes him to question his every move to no end (Childs). The smog is uncontainable and indefinable, much like Prufrock’s emotions when dependent upon his non-existent actions (Childs). In another instance, Eliot breaks up the deep, incessant wanderings of the speaker’s mind with the phrase, “In the room the women come and go talking of Michaelangelo” (Eliot). These women symbolize the society in which Pr...
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
The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot, is the story of the life of a man. It tells of a man reminiscing over his life, regretting decisions that he made. Of a man who is thinking back on his life, and toward the end, it is told how the man is closely approaching death. He wants to be able to escape it, but alas, cannot, and, in the end, he dies. In The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot expresses a sense of regret using literary devices, such as imagery, metaphors, and allusion.
Eliot, Thomas Stearns. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." 1915. The Twentieth Century and Beyond. Ed. Joseph Black. Vol. 6A. Toronto: Broadview, 2008. 444-47. Print. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature.
The poem begins by suggesting that Mr. Prufrock is mentally disassociated with society. Mr. Prufrock, addressing the audience or some imaginary confidante, proposes the mental journey commence "When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised [sic] upon a table" (ll. 2-3). The lines evoke images of drug induced, altered realities. He follows by recommending visits to "one-night cheap hotels" (l. 6) and "sawdust restaurants" (l. 7). The references infer that the locations are not the speaker's normal environments and are part of fantasy environments. In lines 15 through 22, the speaker credits the smog with feline characteristics. He further states "Though I have seen my head [...] brought in upon a platter..." (l. 81). Although it is a biblical reference to the decapitation of John the Baptist, the statement is indicative of an active fantasy life. He admits to having heard mermaids sing and speaks of life on a beach. He creates the fanta...