1. ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ by TS Eliot

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question….
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —
(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —
(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all —
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?

And I have known the arms already, known them all—
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?

. . . . . . . .

Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? ...

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

. . . . . . . .

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep ... tired ... or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

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,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all.”

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.”

. . . . . . . .

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.

I grow old … I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Background

· Written around 1910 / 1911

· Published in 1915 – helped Eliot to attract worldwide attention

· This poem is a dramatic monologue – deals with Prufrock’s isolation and the difficulty he has in life reconciling the needs of his romantic self/soul with the fears of his conventional/reserved outer self – the inner turmoil that influenced Eliot

· Includes an extract from Dante’s Inferno – where Guido (a corrupt friar) is being tortured in hell and can speak freely as no one can return and bring whatever he says back to the living – he can admit everything as no one in Hell can tell anyone in the living world

Poem Analysis

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse "If I but thought that my response were made
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, To one perhaps returning to the world,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. This tongue of flame would cease to flicker.
Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo But since, up from these depths, no one has yet
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero, Returned alive, if what I hear is true,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo. I answer without fear of being shamed.”

· ‘Prufrock’ is a pun on the word ‘prudish’, which means restrained or conscious

· It is written as a dramatic monologue – there is only one person speaking

· Poem starts with a literary allusion from Dante’s Inferno – where the friar, Guido, is talking freely in Hell

· Although it is a love song, love plays only a marginal role – it is a lyric poem

· Mock heroic poem – treats a trivial matter in an inflated manner – exaggeration of little, insignificant things – ‘drama-queen’

· Is Prufrock like Guido, trapped in a sort of hell or is it an ironic contrast between Dante’s awful inferno and Prufrock’s trivial suffering? – Hell of endless indecision, low self-esteem & fear of rejection

· Poem is an interior monologue – speaker discusses his innermost thoughts and feelings – the inner ramblings of Prufrock

· Structure: 3 sections separated by lines of 8 dots

· Section 1: Stanza One:

“Let us go then, you and I” – an invitation – “you” and “I” seem to be a part of the one consciousness (“you” = the public side of Prufrock; “I” = the inner, private man)
“When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table” – simile – the sunset is compared to a patient under anaesthetic – both are hazy and inactive – the light leaving the eyes if someone ‘going under’ is compared to the light seeping out of the world at the sunset – also shows the setting, sets the scene – in a city on a foggy October evening
“half-deserted streets” – setting – little bit of activity
“The muttering retreats” – verb
“Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels” – city depicted as a sordid, shabby place – an unattractive, urban world
“Streets that follow like a tedious argument / Of insidious intent” – simile – personification of streets and evening – feels drugged, has no enthusiasm or energy (“tedious”) – “insidious”: negative connotations
“To lead us to an overwhelming question…. / Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”” – the streets are leading him to an overwhelming question that looms so large it cannot be asked
The images in Stanza One suggest Prufrock is feeling inertia and unease, and a desire for action coupled with an inability to act

· Refrain:

“In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo.” – are they refined or pretentious? – couplet – full of irony – is culture taken seriously or is it trivialised – “come and go”: shows the transient nature of society

· Stanza Two:

“The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes” – this stanza is made up of the extended metaphor of a cat – comparison to the “yellow fog” as a cat
Verbs: “rubs” “Licked” “Lingered” “Let fall” “Slipped” “Curled once” – alliterative ‘L’
“Made a sudden leap” – bit of movement – looks like the cat is going to do something
“Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.” – however, instead of doing something, the cat just ends up falling asleep – lack of energy

· Stanza Three:

“And indeed there will be time” – future tense
“For the yellow smoke that slides along the street” – the extended metaphor of the fog from the previous stanza is carried through into this stanza – sibilance
Repetition of the phrase “There will be time” – repeated 3 times in this stanza – is Prufrock trying to convince himself that there will be plenty of time to ask his question in the future?
“To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet” – describes Prufrock’s public face, the mask that we all put on when we are in public compared to our own face
“There will be time to murder and create” – he can change this outer face into a new confident man – murder person he has (the private, self-conscious man) & create a new one to face the world
“That lift and drop a question on your plate” – embarrassment? – how will you respond to my question?
“Time for you and time for me, / And time yet for a hundred indecisions, / And for a hundred visions and revisions” – indecisive language – he is holding himself back and making excuses, thinking there will be plenty of time later – he is aware that he is putting it off and making excuses (“there will be time”)
Prufrock is afflicted by chronic indecision, going on and on endlessly about the question – he is procrastinating – tone is agonising
“Before the taking of a toast and tea” – mock heroic tone – after all the talk of big change and saying there will be plenty of time to ask his question later, there is comical undertones to this trivial mention of tea and toast

· Refrain is then repeated

· Stanza Four:

“And indeed there will be time” – what else will there be time for?
“To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”” – does he dare to what? Ask the question?
“Time to turn back and descend the stair” – going to enter the room containing the women from the refrain – has he the courage to enter the room or will he turn around and “descend the stair”?
“With a bald spot in the middle of my hair – / (They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)” – he is talking about his outer self & the comments that these women will make about his appearance – he is self-conscious & insecure
“My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, / My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin – / (They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”) – his outer self fits into the society – but his self-consciousness holds him back – even though he physically fits into the same society as these women, he does not feel confident enough to walk into the room, isolating him from society – he thinks about the comments that will made about him when he enters – he is afraid of people talking about him, like all of us are
“Do I dare / Disturb the universe?” – alliteration – by entering the room, it will change everything – he is standing at the door contemplating whether or not to go in and disturb the room with his entrance – he feels out of place – perhaps this is not his world even though his appearance fits into it?
“In a minute there is time / For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.” – he is about to make his decision but then, in a minute, he changes his decision – he is ultimately a coward – has no self-confidence or self-esteem
This stanza highlights Prufrock’s extreme self-consciousness – he is isolated from society even though his outer self fits in and looks the part

· Stanza Five:

“For I have known them all already, known them all” – hypnotic language – he knows how they will react – he has seen it all before and knows that what these women do is judge others on their appearances
“Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons” – bored language – shows the boredom of society – he doesn’t feel as though he is a part of this society
“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons” – shows how trivial his, and our, lives are
“Beneath the music from a farther room” – he is in a large house as rooms as distant and music is faint
“So how should I presume?” – what gives me the right to enter the room? – how can I presume that I am so important that my presence could change/disturb the universe?

· Stanza Six:

“And I have known the eyes already, known them all” – he knows that he is being commented on – tells of his own experience with this society – speaks of their physical attributes and body parts in this and the next stanza (“the eyes”, “the arms”)
“The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase” – as soon as someone enters or speaks, they make a decision about that person – judgemental society
“And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin” – metaphorical language – Prufrock feels like a bug who has been pinned onto a board by a collector – he is then, like the insect, on display for everyone to look at and judge him – comparing himself to an insect trapped under the eyes of the collector & viewers – self-conscious, self-disgust – violent metaphor
“When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, / Then how should I begin / To spit out the butt-ends of my days and ways?” – when he has been judged by this society, it is a humiliating experience – society has labelled him – “spit out” : feeling of distaste in himself – self-disgust – he is nothing, considers his life as worthless, comparable to a tiny insect
“And how should I presume?” – repetition – by asking the infamous question, he could mark the beginning of a new, fresh, meaningful life

· Stanza Seven:

Sensuous imagery – there is a romantic feel to this stanza – shows a man who is capable of intense romantic feeling
“And I have known the arms already, known them all” – these people are only described by their body parts – there is no intimacy – perhaps a fear of intimacy in this society?
“Arms that are braceleted and white and bare” – they are a distraction to him – the cause of his digression (straying off point)
“(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)” – use of brackets like in Stanza Four where the women’s judgemental comments were bracketed – now Prufrock is being the judgemental one, judging the women by their appearance – the brackets provide a link between the women’s judgement and his – irony – the ‘!’ shows attraction, but also repulsion
“Is it perfume from a dress / That makes me so digress?” – sexual smell? – acts as a distraction for Prufrock
“Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl” – bordering on erotic, arms wrapped around etc.
“And should I then presume? / And how should I begin?” – isolation of modern society – showing Prufrock’s own personal isolation – his fear of failure almost ensures his failure
This stanza is full or irony – Prufrock complained about being scrutinised in previous stanzas and yet here he is scrutinising the women – he is watching them – the brackets provide a link between the judgement of the women and his own judgements towards these women
The 8 dots between this stanza and the next add a visual aspect to the poem

· Section 2: Stanza Eight:

This section of the poem is the crisis of the poem
“Shall I say” – ‘this is how I might begin’ – discusses ways of approaching his own loneliness
“I have gone at dusk through narrow streets” – description of the lonely urban life – will he face up to the task of asking the question that will change his life?
“Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?” – the “lonely men” suggest that it is futile, there is no point in facing up to the question – it cannot bridge the gap between society and his private world
“I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.” – very strong language – pure self-disgust – Prufrock is comparing himself to a crab – this is the lowest of the low in the sea world – by comparing himself to a crab, Prufrock claims that he is not good enough for society – very strong metaphor – crabs scuttle sideways; they never move forward – symbolic of Prufrock always going back and forth, never making a decision – perhaps “scuttling” away in fear? – shows the uselessness of fear
“silent seas” : sibilance – we cannot express ourselves when it is silent – onomatopoeia

· Section 3: Stanza Nine:

In this stanza, we see who Prufrock really is
“And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!” – personification – the tension from the previous stanzas slackens almost straight away – there is now a lethargic feel to the poem – no more activity or movement (“sleeps”)
“malingers” – drags on
“Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, / Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?” – mock heroic – reminder of the triviality of his life – will he have the wherewithal to ask the question?
“But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed” – he is anguished – has put a lot of thought into it
“Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter” – biblical allusion – John the Baptist was humiliated when his head was brought in on a platter after his execution – Prufrock feels this same humiliation – sense of fear of humiliation is evident – Prufrock is scared of being open to ridicule
“I am no prophet – and here’s no great matter” – almost admitting defeat – he no longer talks of the question as an important one
“I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker” – he is picturing it – going to be sacrificed on the altar of society
“And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker” – Footman could be the personification of death – is this the only end that Prufrock will have? – even the Footman laughs at him – humiliating departure from the world
“And in short, I was afraid” – admission (finally!) – he finally admits to his fear – he is afraid of the rejection and mockery of society

· Stanza Ten:

“And would it have been worth it, after all” – if he had asked the question, would it have been worthwhile – sense of regret?
“After the cups, the marmalade, the tea” – mock heroic – the trivial things that makes up his life
“among some talk of you and me” – romantic couple? – was the big question a proposal of marriage?
“Would it have been worth while” – repetition – sense of regret is evident – questioning himself – sense of sadness
“To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead, / Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all” – Prufrock is mocking himself – biblical allusion: link to Guido – someone did return from the dead even though Guido was bragging about no one on earth being able to hear his admissions – both Lazarus and Prufrock have hidden lives – we don’t know what they are really like

· Stanza Eleven:

The first half of this stanza is full of mock heroism to portray the triviality of Prufrock’s life
“Would it have been worth while” – this phrase is repeated 5 times between these two stanzas
“sprinkled sheets” – sibilance
“It is impossible to say just what I mean!” – Prufrock cannot put his feelings into words
“But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen” – metaphor – reference to the screen placed in front of a fire – the shadows dancing on the screen from the light of the fire – there is no substance to a shadow – Prufrock compares himself to a shadow, saying he has no substance – “magic lantern” : flickering of a fire
“If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl / And turning toward the window” – could it have ended in rejection? Or misunderstanding?
““That is not it at all, / That is not what I meant, at all.”” – a quote from the person he was going to ask the question of? – did they not give him that impression? (that they wanted to get married?) – Prufrock’s worry of misinterpreting social cues is clear

· Final Section of poem: Stanza Twelve:

“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was I meant to be” – exclamation mark adds drama – choice of comparison to the play ‘Hamlet’ – Prufrock’s resemblance to Hamlet’s indecisiveness at the beginning of Shakespeare’s play – but Prufrock does not think himself worthy of the same title ‘Prince’ – he is not a central character, but more of an “attendant lord” – perhaps referring to the character Polonius in ‘Hamlet’
“To swell a progress, start a scene or two, / Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool” – he is a number, only good enough to start a scene but not be the central character – “easy” to manipulate perhaps?
“Deferential, glad to be of use” – bow to other people’s opinions, always give in – always happy to please
“Politic, cautious, and meticulous” – always doing what people want to do rather than what is right
“Full of high sentence” – good language/speech/English
“but a bit obtuse” – thick/stupid – great description of how Prufrock sees himself
“Almost, at times, the Fool.” – reference to the Fool in King Lear who was very insightful, wise and caring, giving Lear great advice during the duration of the play
Reference to 3 Shakespeare characters in this stanza – Hamlet, Polonius and the Fool

· Stanza Thirteen:

“I grow old … I grow old … / I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” – monotonous tone – Prufrock didn’t ask the question – he failed – so this is now his life – back to the trivialities of life

· “Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?” – mock heroic – these are now the questions that he has to deal with because he didn’t ask the important question

· “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.” – analogy – reference to the sea again, sense of isolation – except this time the sea is a place of beauty and magic – mermaids compared to women in salons – all self-interest – the mermaids song is an enchanting sound

· “I do not think that they will sing to me.” – although the sea has changed into a thing of beauty, Prufrock has not changed – he is not good enough for them to sing to him

· The poem could end here if Eliot wanted

· Stanza Fourteen:

“Combing the white hair of the waves blown back / When the wind blows the water white and black.” – metaphor describing the foam on the sea – same colour – there is an element of Prufrock’s own feelings in this metaphor of the sea – we get the feeling that he wants to retreat from the world like the waves – he is inadequate – leaves us with the image of Prufrock as a very unhappy man

· Stanza Fifteen:

“We have lingered in the chambers of the sea” – comparison to tea rooms & salons of women – similarity of the talking, exclusion, etc.
“By the sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown / Till human voices wake us, and we drown.” – the ideal world would be a place where his inner and outer self are reconciled – this place exists in his dreams; this is the only place that it exists – this man has all of this vitality, but has no confidence – he feels as though he is drowning
The final, powerful image suggests that the beauty and possibility that the mermaids represent is lost in the waking humdrum, monotonous human world and in this, something vital is lost
This poem ends by not just being a portrait of a man, but what it is to be human
“Human voices” could be reality breaking through or the women from earlier in the poem
“We” – struggles to survive in the city
Poem ends on a despairing note – he drowns in a sea of loneliness and isolation, his inner self is forever silenced by his extreme self-consciousness and fear of rejection

Themes

· Isolation & loneliness of modern man

Negative view of urbanisation: he describes an unpleasant urban environment
The squalor (unpleasantness) of a modern city is also evident (“cheap hotels”)
No evidence of human happiness anywhere in this poem

· Disgust at, and superficiality of, upper classes

Upper classes are seen as dull and shallow, materialistic and only interested in appearances and possessions
They live in a world of pretence; are judgemental; their lives lack substance – they sit around drinking tea

· Failure of love

Very unusual love song because the hero lacks the confidence to approach and ask the overwhelming question
His fear of rejection ensures his inaction (fear of failure ensures failure)
The big question that he wants to ask may be a proposal of marriage, but he is afraid to ask it in case he has picked up on the situation wrong, and the girl is not interested in him romantically (“That is not it at all”)

	Created by Aoibheann Tighe about 8 years ago

Leaving Certificate English (Poetry) Note on T.S. Eliot, created by Aoibheann Tighe on 22/05/2016.

T.S. Eliot