The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is an interesting poem,
to say the least. Before even beginning the poem, the reader would think that
the title is rather suggestive. It may be assumed that the title character, Prufrock
would perhaps be professing his love for a special someone, however, the
opening of the poem strays the reader from this idea. Instead, the reader is
asked to go for a walk through the not so nice area of the town, complete with
yellow fog which only makes the setting and atmosphere (and premise of this
poem) that much more gloomy and eerie. The speaker does mention that there will
be an important question to be answered along the way, leaving the reader
intrigued to carry on.
A huge element of this poem is that of “time.” It seems that
Prufrock has all the time to dawdle and delay—especially in regards to asking
the reader (or his lover?) an important question. In the meantime though, he
has no qualms about walking through the streets of fog and smoke or how he
plans on getting things done “before toast and tea.” This whole time
manipulation got me thinking—is Prufrock perhaps afraid of someone or
something? Is there a reason he is rather avoidant? He has no problem analyzing
the woman he sees, (i.e. how they speak about Renaissance art and Michelangelo)
and yet his own personal analysis is rather interesting being that he describes
himself as being very thin and having bald spots. Is his self-loathing and
dawdling a defense mechanism of some sort? He says “There
will be time, there will be time /To prepare a face to meet the faces that you
meet;”-is this extra time for his lover? To prepare herself and her face? Or is
it for him to ready himself and make himself into the man he does not seem to
think he is? Nevertheless, Prufrock seems to be hiding something. He is lagging
in telling or asking the reader something all through the first half of the
poem. Finally around line 80 there may be a chance for progress, “Have the strength to force the moment to its
crisis?” in that it seems
Prufrock is working and warming up to asking the audience his question, but in
true form, he is wary. But of course, just when the reader thinks Prufrock is
about to ask, he retreats again (around line 87) as if the opportunity to ask
the reader has already passed. At this point of the poem I’m not going to lie,
I got a bit angry-90 lines in seems like a bit of a stretch to me to hold the
reader on. At this rate I just wanted to know what the question was and if in
fact he’d ever ask it. As the poem continues on it may be inferred that time
passes as well and that Prufrock has missed his chance in asking his question.
He was too nervous and overanalyzed the what-ifs and worst case scenarios, he
has, “grow old … I grow old …I shall wear the
bottoms of my trousers rolled.”
I have to say the ending of this poem really threw me. First,
I have to say I was disappointed in that the entire poem was a build up to only
be left with nothing. Prufrock was introduced as a coward and that shell was
never shed. Secondly, the whole mermaid-plot is a little eyebrow raising. Now, I
realize that time passes through this poem but does that mean that Prufrock’s
sanity went a bit? He couldn’t have actually spotted mermaids…right? The moral
of this poem may be this: don’t let time pass you by—the missed opportunities
may drive you to madness. (Now, isn’t that a little depressing?). Way to go
Prufrock.
It's interesting how the build-up of the poem (after the "faces being prepared" is mentioned) is almost slyly subdued when Prufrock mentions the "toast and the tea," such a trivial thing. This is a pattern that spans the entire poem: Prufrock is overwhelmed by trivial things: his life is measured in coffee spoons (my favorite line), he focusses on cakes and ice and perfume and his clothing and peaches etc. etc. This is so sad! This reminds me of human tendencies to focus on the little, insignificant things in life, let them overwhelm us and consume our minds, causing us to procrastinate and lose hope....Perhaps the most significant thing in this poem is time, which Prufrock seems to brush off and not at all worry about by the end (which it seems he has done his whole life). Sadder than this is that Prufrock longs to be a little risky (wearing his trousers rolled, parting his hair a certain way) in order to break away from his unspontaneous, unsatisfactory life routine. and, yet, he says "Do I dare disturb the universe?" -making such trivial changes to his life so much more important and overblown than they actually are (does one really "disturb the universe" by wearing his trousers rolled, or talking to a lady...). It sees Prufrock is his own worst enemy: he has doubts, is insecure, longs for change but does not act on it, and focusses not on what's truly important (like making himself happy and approaching a woman) but his fears and cowardice.
ReplyDeleteI liked the line that you pointed out “There will be time, there will be time / To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;”. I think that stanza is really easy to read quickly and miss some of the things that Prufrock is saying. I personally think that he says this because he is so insecure about himself throughout the entire poem so he needs to metaphorically put on a different face. He does not want to meet people as his real self, for he is unhappy with the outward appearance that he gives off. Prufrock is also unable to even create a false outward appearance because he proceeds saying that with “There will be time” which means he is going to put off what he thinks he needs to do in order to interact with other people. Then continuing down the stanza he says that there “…Time for a hundred indecisions,” which means he is even questioning the outward appearance that he wants to put on. He keeps “murdering” the fake appearance he wants people to see and creating a new one.
ReplyDeleteDaniel Pietaro
I did too think the song was going to be about romance from the title of the poem, but if there is one thing that I have learned from this course is that I am always shocked on which way a text or piece goes. My mood went from hopeful to gloomy when I began reading the poem as well. As I read furthere I noticed that there was a question trying to be asked. We are not told what so the anticipation kind of got to me. In the meantime, the speaker is procrastinating and just mindlessly walking in the streets so I can see why you think Prufrock thinks he has all the time in the world. I like how you questioned this behavior because I did not when reading the poem. Why was the author/ speaker delaying time? Maybe they were scared like you said! Eventually the speaker misses his chance to ask the question. Towards the end of the poem I was confused and thrown off so your thoughts helped my confusion a little better. Overall, I get the meaning of the poem. Like you said- don’t let time pass you by. I think we should all think about this and take some of it away from the poem. It is a very good lesson and that made me like the poem better.
ReplyDeleteErica Schroen
The beginning of this poem threw me the first time I read it too. I was like "oh a love song! What a nice change for my (tenth grade?) not-so-happy AP english class, this should be fun! Ha, yea right! But I think that almost made it that much stronger. You talked a lot about how he was dawdling and always retreating because he believed he had so much time...I think that the title made this so much stronger because, since he wasted all this time in his life, this is the only love song he could sing. He COULD have a beautiful, romantic love song about him and this girl and how much they love each other for who they are, but Prufrock was too much of a chicken to do anything with his life, and this is what he was left with. He worried too much about the superficial things and not enough about the things that are important, so he dug himself his own grave eventually! It's really sad, but its kind of a good message too. It tells you to step up and get out there, because nothing is going to happen unless you make it happen.
ReplyDeleteI like that you pointed our that Prufrock is aware of his bald spots and thinness. I agree with you that this is probably something in his head, his way of saying that he can't pursue women, but I also think that there might be something a little bit more to this. I think that there is a little bit of resentment towards his looks--a sort of limitation--as well as what those looks say about him which makes him an unworthy romantic candidate. The bald spots indicate age and the thinness indicates lack of wealth. This poem indicates that time is of the essence, and I think his mention of physical appearance can be kept in mind for when he makes the later reference to his clothes--things aren't getting any better for him.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one who thought this poem was dreadful? I too thought we would have a nice little love story on our hands but nope, we were all fooled. I think Prufrock is a sad little man... He is unsure about his own looks and seems so insecure. He thinks in his mind that he has plenty of time to find love but in reality he has wasted all his precious time. He says " I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" Come on man! Is there not something better than a coffee spoon to measure the vast existence that is your HUMAN LIFE!? How unromantic. I just thought this poem was such a huge build up and utter let down. Although I do wonder why he references so many of the great poets? Is it because he thinks they achieved something that he never will with their time? I don't know. Sorry T.S. I am not a fan of this one!
ReplyDeleteThe ending completely threw me for a loop as well. The entire poem, I was trying to figure out who Eliot's reader was. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be directed toward Prufrock's lover or a friend, or just the general audience. It's weird to think of it as being a dream that we are waking from. It's also weird that he has brought the audience back into the ending by stating that the "...voices wake US, and WE drown." Is he saying that we, or his lover/friend/someone is dead too? This ending is tough to dissect and interpret, but I personally think it seems like more of a cop out than anything.
ReplyDeleteI liked that you pointed out the line about preparing a face for the faces you'll meet. I definitely tend to read over this line a lot, because it's a little sing-song-y (is that even a word?). I could definitely see how this could be a defense mechanism for himself, since he does spend so much time looking at trivial things such as clothing, coffee spoons, etc. I agree that he could be hiding something. Another random thought I had, going along with Ashlee-maybe his mentioning of so many of the great poets relates to his lack of self-confidence in the poem, almost overcompensating for the fact that he really isn't that great at all? I'm probably wrong but it crossed my mind.
ReplyDeleteThe preparing a face part reminded me of Lady Wishfort (throwback to The Way of The World). She was always very meticulously preparing herself so she would look a certain way to the people around her. Prufrock does the same thing because he is also ver concerned about his reputation and how people view him. The poem, however, is commenting that if we spend all of this time preparing and getting ready, worrying about superficialities like appearance, we will never actually do anything. This is why the poem keeps on building and building and building... but up to nothing. Prufrock spent his whole life getting ready to do something, but never actually does anything. Elliot is telling us that preparation is futile if you never actually get to the point and the doing!
ReplyDeleteI love this poem. It seems very silly to me to name this poem "A love song" while our main character is anything but romantic or even social. His name could be deemed a joke too! Who would want to fall in love with someone named J.Alfred Prufrock? He is sort of off to a poor start before he even gets the chance to say anything. As readers we learn that his name certainly gives away the type of person that he is. He is an awkward fellow who lacks assertiveness and is indecisive in all aspects of his life. The most daring thing he does is roll his trousers or eat a peach. He complains a lot and seems to be a sad, lonely guy who is looking for someone to pay attention to him and stimulate his interest in something. Unfortunately he never finds that something because he is still alone at the end of his life. I think if anyone was ever feeling down about themselves, they could read this poem and remember how much better off they are then Mr. Prufrock! Gotta feel bad for the guy though...
ReplyDelete-Megan Harpel