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The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock

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Intro: Within the poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, there are many characteristics of Modernism that make it a true Modernist Poem. Characteristics such as theme, structure, and style are modernistic in the way that they are portrayed in this poem. Modernistic poetry had some very dark themes in its works. Themes such as questioning and alienation are very prominent in modern poetry as well as in T. S. Eliot’s poem. During this time period, there were many people who were questioning everything that they believed in. Their beliefs such as religion, government, and the morality of the world were being questioned by most everyone. It is present throughout the poem that Alfred J. Prufrock is searching for something and questioning parts of his life. He doesn’t quite know what it is that he is searching for or why he is questioning parts of his life. In lines (put number here), Prufrock is questioning all of the …show more content…

At the end of each stanza he asks, “how should I presume?” Since that is the ending of each stanza, it shows that he doesn’t really know what to make of all of these people he has met and is questioning why he doesn’t understand them. Another theme of the poem is alienation. Within the entirety of the poem, it is thought that Prufrock is with someone, the reader, as it refers to in the first line, “Let us go then, you and I,” (Line 1). But, in actuality, it is unknown for certain if he is actually accompanied by someone or is just talking to himself, hoping someone will hear him. It also sounds like he is a very popular party-goer, as he talks about the rooms that, “the women come and go, Talking of Michelango.”( line ) But, since he speaks about them as a memory that he is not fond of, this could mean that he wasn’t a very popular man at these parties. It seems as though he made a lot of mistakes and has tried to change and fix them. Through this line, “In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute

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“I heard,” line 3 “his silver call,” line 3 “I’d tunnel,” line 5 “pushed sudden,” line 6 E. “looking in his eyes,” line 8 All the following words are used to suggest the same quality EXCEPT “walls,” line 1 “rock,” line 2 “block,” line 4 “groove,” line 5 “adamant,” line 11 Line 9 begins with “But” because lines 9-16 are contrasted with the universe of rock in line 1-8. the speaker realizes the statement of lines 1-8 is insincere. lines 9-16 will precisely parallel lines 1-8. lines 1-8 are metaphorical, while lines 9-16 are literal. the speaker of lines 1-8 is different from the speaker of lines 9-16.

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He could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.

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The two poems contrast with each other in their character and in meaning. While Prufrock remains strongly self conscious and questions his own existence, the man in Marvell’s poem is portrayed as a confident bachelor ready to make the most of the time he has. This contrast makes allusions

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Society, for centuries, has revered poetry for its beauty, philosophy, and unique capability to reveal truth to the individual. One of the most prominent time periods that display society’s acclaim for poetry was within the Romantic period. Romanticism, according to the New World Encyclopedia, was “an artistic and intellectual movement that ran from the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth century. It stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience” (New World Encyclopedia, 2015). Romanticism glorified art, poetry, music, and nature.

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S. Eliot’s title “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock ironic is that the woman he speaks of never responds to him anywhere in the poem. This makes it to be the realization of Alfred Prufrock’s loveless life. The failure and breakdown of communication from the other side tell about one aspect, which is the symbol of isolation among humans. The beginning of the poem seems like the speaker is talking to a woman whom he loves. It then turns out to be ironic and against normal expectations of the readers because there is the anticipation of something special to be spoken from the other party as well.

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The love song is actually a poem, but one of the meanings of love song, is a poem. This poem is assumed to be directed towards a lover of Prufrock’s, but throughout the story Prufrock seems to be facing dilemmas and indecision when having to choose the things to do and say to his lover. Elliot starts his love song off in a very mysterious manner, beckoning for his lover to join him and take a trip, but not the ordinary romantic

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This self-denial gives him further resolve at the end of the poem to still refuse to propose. Eliot’s allusion to Shakespeare’s Hamlet is clever in this way because in the play Hamlet is also indecisive; so much so that he needs a reminder from his father’s ghost to kill his uncle, Claudius, who killed his father, took the throne, and married his mother (Shmoop). In this same portion of the poem as the Hamlet allusion, Prufrock admits that he thinks he’s too old to marry, that he is so old fashioned he still “wear[s] the bottoms of [his] trousers rolled” (Greenblatt 1304, line 121). This shows the reader that Prufrock still is adamant that he is not going to propose to the

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For instance, he writes “And would it have been worth it, after all,
/ After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
/ Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
/ Would it have been worth while,
/ To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
/ To have squeezed the universe into a ball
/ To roll it toward some overwhelming question” (“Prufrock” 87-93). This vivid imagery shows how he compares taking on some overwhelming question to squeezing the universe into a ball; this is virtually impossible, so Prufrock is very intimidated by confronting people in society, specifically women. He believes that it wasn’t worth it and convinces himself it was a good idea that he didn’t risk anything for this woman. The fragmentation in

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It was written when Plath’s marriage to Ted Hughes was in difficulty and she was suffering with depression. We are given an insight into the her inner feelings and trouble. She uses dark, disturbing and graphic imagery which reflects her mind at the time she was writing the poem. The state she describes is almost terrifying. The description of the poppies in the opening lines is positive.

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