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"'''The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'''", commonly known as "'''Prufrock'''", is a poem by American-British poet ] (1888–1965). Eliot began writing "Prufrock" in February 1910 and it was first published June 1915 issue of '']'' at the instigation of ] (1885–1972). It was later printed as part of a twelve-poem pamphlet (or ]) titled ''Prufrock and Other Observations'' in 1917. At the time of its publication, Prufrock was considered shocking and offensive; heralding a paradigmatic cultural shift from the late 19th century ] and ] to ]. The poem is regarded as the beginning of Eliot's career as an influential poet. "'''The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'''", commonly known as "'''Prufrock'''", is a poem by American-British poet ] (1888–1965). Eliot began writing "Prufrock" in February 1910 and it was first published June 1915 issue of '']''<ref name="PoetryMagJune1915" /> at the instigation of ] (1885–1972). It was later printed as part of a twelve-poem pamphlet (or ]) titled ''Prufrock and Other Observations'' in 1917.<ref name="PrufrockOtherObservation1917" /> At the time of its publication, Prufrock was considered shocking and offensive; heralding a paradigmatic cultural shift from the late 19th century ] and ] to ]. The poem is regarded as the beginning of Eliot's career as an influential poet.


The poem's structure was heavily influenced by Eliot's extensive reading of ] and makes several references to the ] and other literary works—including ]'s plays '']'', '']'', and '']''; to the poetry of seventeenth-century ] ], and the nineteenth-century ]. Eliot narrates the conscious experience of the character, Prufrock, using a ] technique, a form developed by his fellow Modernist writers. The poem, described as a "drama of literary anguish" is a ] ] of an urban man, stricken with feelings of isolation and an incapability for decisive action that is said "to epitomize frustration and impotence of the modern individual" and "represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment."<ref>McCoy, Kathleen, and Harlan, Judith. ''English Literature From 1785'' (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 265-66.</ref> Prufrock laments his physical and intellectual inertia, the lost opportunities in his life and lack of spiritual progress, and he is haunted by reminders of ]. With visceral feelings of weariness, regret, embarrassment, longing, ], ], a sense of decay, and an awareness of mortality, "Prufrock" has become one of the most recognized voices in modern literature.<ref>Bercovitch, Sacvan. ''The Cambridge History of American Literature''. Volume 5. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 99.</ref> The poem's structure was heavily influenced by Eliot's extensive reading of ] and makes several references to the ] and other literary works—including ]'s plays '']'', '']'', and '']''; to the poetry of seventeenth-century ] ], and the nineteenth-century ]. Eliot narrates the conscious experience of the character, Prufrock, using a ] technique, a form developed by his fellow Modernist writers. The poem, described as a "drama of literary anguish" is a ] ] of an urban man, stricken with feelings of isolation and an incapability for decisive action that is said "to epitomize frustration and impotence of the modern individual" and "represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment."<ref>McCoy, Kathleen, and Harlan, Judith. ''English Literature From 1785'' (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 265-66.</ref> Prufrock laments his physical and intellectual inertia, the lost opportunities in his life and lack of spiritual progress, and he is haunted by reminders of ]. With visceral feelings of weariness, regret, embarrassment, longing, ], ], a sense of decay, and an awareness of mortality, "Prufrock" has become one of the most recognized voices in modern literature.<ref>Bercovitch, Sacvan. ''The Cambridge History of American Literature''. Volume 5. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 99.</ref>


== Composition and publication == == Composition and publication ==
Composed mainly between February 1910 and July or August 1911, the poem was first published in Chicago in the June 1915 issue of '']'',<ref>Southam, B.C. ''A Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot.'' Harcourt, Brace & Company, New York 1994, p. 45.</ref> after ], the magazine's foreign editor, persuaded ], its founder, that Eliot was unique: "He has actually trained himself AND modernized himself ON HIS OWN. The rest of the ''promising'' young have done one or the other, but never both."<ref>Capitalization and italics original. Quoted in Mertens, Richard. "Letter By Letter." ''The University of Chicago Magazine''. August 2001. http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0108/features/letter.html (accessed April 23, 2007).</ref> This was Eliot's first publication of a poem outside school or university. Composed mainly between February 1910 and July or August 1911, the poem was first published in Chicago in the June 1915 issue of '']'',<ref>Southam, B.C. ''A Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot.'' (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1994), 45.</ref> after ], the magazine's foreign editor, persuaded ], its founder, that Eliot was unique: "He has actually trained himself AND modernized himself ON HIS OWN. The rest of the ''promising'' young have done one or the other, but never both."<ref>Capitalization and italics original. Quoted in Mertens, Richard. in ''The University of Chicago Magazine'' (August 2001). Retrieved 23 April 2007.</ref> This was Eliot's first publication of a poem outside school or university.


In November 1915 the poem&mdash;along with Eliot's "]," "The Boston Evening Transcript," "Hysteria," and "Miss Helen Slingsby"&mdash;was published in London in Pound's ''Catholic Anthology 1914&ndash;1915'', which was printed by ].<ref>Miller, James Edward. ''T.S. Eliot: the making of an American poet, 1888-1922'', Penn State Press, 2005, p. 297.</ref> In June 1917 '']'', a small publishing firm run by ], published a pamphlet entitled ''Prufrock and Other Observations'' (London), containing twelve poems by Eliot. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was the first in the volume. In November 1915 the poem&mdash;along with Eliot's "]," "The Boston Evening Transcript," "Hysteria," and "Miss Helen Slingsby"&mdash;was published in London in Pound's ''Catholic Anthology 1914&ndash;1915'', which was printed by ].<ref>Miller, James Edward. ''T.S. Eliot: The Making of an American poet, 1888-1922''. (State College, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005), 297.</ref> In June 1917 '']'', a small publishing firm run by ], published a pamphlet entitled ''Prufrock and Other Observations'' (London), containing twelve poems by Eliot. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was the first in the volume.<ref name="PrufrockOtherObservation1917" />


Eliot's notebook of draft poems, published posthumously in 1996 by ], has the dates "July&ndash;Aug. 1911" at the end of the poem marking him as young as 22 when the poem was completed. The notebook includes 38 lines from the middle of a draft version of the poem. This section, now known as ''Prufrock's Pervigilium'', describes the "]" of Prufrock through an evening and night.<ref>T.S. Eliot, ''Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909-1917''. Ed. Christopher B. Ricks. (Harcourt, 1996) pp. 41, 43-44, 176-90</ref> Eliot's notebook of draft poems, published posthumously in 1996 by ], has the dates "July&ndash;Aug. 1911" at the end of the poem marking him as young as 22 when the poem was completed. The notebook includes 38 lines from the middle of a draft version of the poem. This section, now known as ''Prufrock's Pervigilium'', describes the "]" of Prufrock through an evening and night.<ref name="TSERicksInventionsMarchHare">Eliot, T. S., and Ricks, Christopher B. (editor). ''Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909-1917'' Ed. Christopher B. Ricks. (New York: Harcourt, 1996).</ref>{{rp|41, 43-44, 176-90}}


The Harvard Vocarium at ] recorded Eliot's reading of ''Prufrock'' and other poems in 1947, as part of their ongoing series of poetry readings by their authors.<ref>Woodberry Poetry Room (Harvard College Library). </ref> The Harvard Vocarium at ] recorded Eliot's reading of ''Prufrock'' and other poems in 1947, as part of their ongoing series of poetry readings by their authors.<ref>Woodberry Poetry Room (Harvard College Library). </ref>


== Title == == Title ==
In the drafts, the poem had the subtitle "Prufrock among the Women."<ref>Eliot, T. S. '']'', 1st edition. ], ed. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1996. pg 39.</ref> Eliot said "The Love Song of" portion of the title came from "The Love Song of Har Dyal," a poem by ],<ref>Eliot, T. S. "The Unfading Genius of Rudyard Kipling", ''Kipling Journal'', March 1959, pg. 9.</ref> published in the 1888 collection '']''. The form of Prufrock's name is like the name that Eliot was using at the time: T.&nbsp;Stearns Eliot.<ref>Eliot, T. S. ''The Letters of T. S. Eliot'', vol. 1. Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1988. pg. 135.</ref> In the drafts, the poem had the subtitle "Prufrock among the Women."<ref name="TSERicksInventionsMarchHare">{{rp|39}} Eliot said "The Love Song of" portion of the title came from "The Love Song of Har Dyal," a poem by ] published in the 1888 collection '']''.<ref>Eliot, T. S. "The Unfading Genius of Rudyard Kipling" in ''Kipling Journal'' (March 1959), 9.</ref> The form of Prufrock's name is like the name that Eliot was using at the time: T.&nbsp;Stearns Eliot.<ref>Eliot, T. S. ''The Letters of T. S. Eliot''. (New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1988). 1:135.</ref>


On the origin of the name "Prufrock", there was a Prufrock-Litton Company, a furniture store, in ] at the time Eliot lived there.<ref>The furniture store name is given as Prufrock-Littau in many books and websites. However, pre-1911 advertising postcards clearly show the furniture store name as Prufrock-Litton.</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1=Montesi | first1=Al | last2=Deposki | first2=Richard | title=Downtown St. Louis | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=xFMYa1ZaojUC&pg=PA65 | accessdate=February 21, 2012 | date=August 1, 2001 | publisher=Arcadia Publishing | isbn=0-7385-0816-0 | page=65}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | author=Christine H. | title=The Daily Postcard: Prufrock-Litton - St. Louis, Missouri | url=http://postcardparadise.blogspot.com/2010/01/prufrock-litton-st-louis-missouri.html | date=January 28, 2010 | accessdate=February 21, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://collections.mohistory.org/photo/PHO:34736 | accessdate=February 21, 2012 | title=Lighting fixture in front of Prufrock-Litton Furniture Company | publisher=Missouri History Museum}}</ref> On the origin of the name "Prufrock", there was a Prufrock-Litton Company, a furniture store, in ] at the time Eliot lived there.<ref>Note that the furniture store name is given as Prufrock-Littau in many books and websites. However, pre-1911 advertising postcards clearly show the furniture store name as Prufrock-Litton.</ref><ref>Montesi, Al, and Deposki, Richard. (Arcadia Publishing, 2001), 65. ISBN 0-7385-0816-0</ref><ref>Christine H. . Retrieved 21 February 2012.</ref><ref>Missouri History Museum. . Retrieved 11 June 2013.</ref>


In a 1950 letter, Eliot said, "I did not have, at the time of writing the poem, and have not yet recovered, any recollection of having acquired this name in any way, but I think that it must be assumed that I did, and that the memory has been obliterated."<ref>Stepanchev, Stephen. "The Origin of J. Alfred Prufrock." ''Modern Language Notes,'' 66, (1951). 400-401.</ref> In a 1950 letter, Eliot said, "I did not have, at the time of writing the poem, and have not yet recovered, any recollection of having acquired this name in any way, but I think that it must be assumed that I did, and that the memory has been obliterated."<ref>Stepanchev, Stephen. "The Origin of J. Alfred Prufrock" in ''Modern Language Notes''. (1951), 66:400-401.</ref>


== Epigraph == == Epigraph ==
In context, the ] refers to a meeting between ] and ], who was condemned to the ] for providing counsel to ], who wished to use Guido's advice for a nefarious undertaking. This encounter follows Dante's meeting with ], who himself is also condemned to the circle of the Fraudulent. According to Ron Banerjee, the epigraph serves to cast ironic light on Prufrock's intent. Like Guido, Prufrock had intended his story never be told, and so by quoting Guido, Eliot reveals his view of Prufrock's love song.<ref>Banerjee, Ron D. K. "The Dantean Overview: The Epigraph to 'Prufrock'." ''Comparative Literature'', 87, (1972). 962-966.</ref> In context, the ] refers to a meeting between ] and ], who was condemned to the ] for providing counsel to ], who wished to use Guido's advice for a nefarious undertaking. This encounter follows Dante's meeting with ], who himself is also condemned to the circle of the Fraudulent. According to Ron Banerjee, the epigraph serves to cast ironic light on Prufrock's intent. Like Guido, Prufrock had intended his story never be told, and so by quoting Guido, Eliot reveals his view of Prufrock's love song.<ref>Banerjee, Ron D. K. "The Dantean Overview: The Epigraph to 'Prufrock'" in ''Comparative Literature''. (1972) 87:962-966.</ref>


Frederick Locke contends that Prufrock himself is suffering from multiple personalities of sorts, and that he embodies both Guido and Dante in the ''Inferno'' analogy. One is the storyteller; the other the listener who later reveals the story to the world. He posits, alternatively, that the role of Guido in the analogy is indeed filled by Prufrock, but that the role of Dante is filled by ''you'', the reader, as in "Let us go then, you and I," (1). In that, the reader is granted the power to do as he pleases with Prufrock's love song.<ref>Locke, Frederick W. "Dante and T. S. Eliot's Prufrock." ''Modern Language Notes'', 78, (1963). 51-59.</ref> Frederick Locke contends that Prufrock himself is suffering from multiple personalities of sorts, and that he embodies both Guido and Dante in the ''Inferno'' analogy. One is the storyteller; the other the listener who later reveals the story to the world. He posits, alternatively, that the role of Guido in the analogy is indeed filled by Prufrock, but that the role of Dante is filled by ''you'', the reader, as in "Let us go then, you and I," (1). In that, the reader is granted the power to do as he pleases with Prufrock's love song.<ref>Locke, Frederick W. "Dante and T. S. Eliot's Prufrock." in ''Modern Language Notes''. (1963) 78:51-59.</ref>


Although he finally chose not to use it, the draft version of the epigraph for the poem came from Dante's '']'' (XXVI, 147-148):<ref>T.S. Eliot, ''Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909-1917''. Ed Christopher B. Ricks. (Harcourt, 1996) pp. 39, 41</ref> Although he finally chose not to use it, the draft version of the epigraph for the poem came from Dante's '']'' (XXVI, 147-148):<ref name="TSERicksInventionsMarchHare" />{{rp|39, 41}}
:'sovegna vos a temps de ma dolor'. :'sovegna vos a temps de ma dolor'.
:Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina. :Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina.
Line 65: Line 65:
: But since, up from these depths, no one has yet : But since, up from these depths, no one has yet
: returned alive, if what I hear is true, : returned alive, if what I hear is true,
: I answer without fear of being shamed."<ref>Dante. . Transl. Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander. Princeton Dante Project. (accessed November 3, 2011).</ref> : I answer without fear of being shamed."<ref>Dante Alighieri, and Hollander Robert and Hollander, Jean (translators), . (Princeton: Princeton Dante Project). Retrieved 3 November 2011.</ref>


== Interpretation == == Interpretation ==
Because the poem is concerned primarily with the irregular musings of the narrator, it can be difficult to interpret. ] wrote, " presents the apparently random thoughts going through a person's head within a certain time interval, in which the transitional links are psychological rather than logical".<ref name=Perrine798>Perrine, Laurence. ''Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense'', 1st edition. Harcourt, Brace & World, 1956. p. 798.</ref> This stylistic choice makes it difficult to determine exactly what is literal and what is symbolic. On the surface, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" relays the thoughts of a sexually frustrated middle-aged man who wants to say something but is afraid to do so, and ultimately does not.<ref name=Perrine798/><ref> (accessed June 14, 2006).</ref> The dispute, however, lies in to whom Prufrock is speaking, whether he is actually ''going'' anywhere, what he wants to say, and to what the various images refer. Because the poem is concerned primarily with the irregular musings of the narrator, it can be difficult to interpret. ] wrote, " presents the apparently random thoughts going through a person's head within a certain time interval, in which the transitional links are psychological rather than logical".<ref name="Perrine">Perrine, Laurence. ''Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense'', 1st edition. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1956), 798.</ref> This stylistic choice makes it difficult to determine exactly what is literal and what is symbolic. On the surface, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" relays the thoughts of a sexually frustrated middle-aged man who wants to say something but is afraid to do so, and ultimately does not.<ref name="Perrine" /><ref> (accessed June 14, 2006).</ref> The dispute, however, lies in to whom Prufrock is speaking, whether he is actually ''going'' anywhere, what he wants to say, and to what the various images refer.


The intended audience is not evident. Some believe that Prufrock is talking to another person<ref>Headings, Philip R. ''T. S. Eliot''. Revised ed. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982. pp. 24-25.</ref> or directly to the reader,<ref name="Hec">Hecimovich, Gred A (editor). (accessed June 14, 2006), from McCoy, Kathleen; Harlan, Judith. ''English Literature from 1785''. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.</ref> while others believe Prufrock's monologue is internal. Perrine writes "The 'you and I' of the first line are divided parts of Prufrock's own nature",<ref name=Perrine798/> while Mutlu Konuk Blasing suggests that the "you and I" refers to the relationship between the dilemmas of the character and the author.<ref name="Blasing">Blasing, Mutlu Konuk, "On 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'", from ''American Poetry: The Rhetoric of Its Forms''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.</ref> Similarly, critics dispute whether Prufrock is going somewhere during the course of the poem. In the first half of the poem, Prufrock uses various outdoor images (the sky, streets, cheap restaurants and hotels, fog), and talks about how there will be time for various things before "the taking of a toast and tea", and "time to turn back and descend the stair." This has led many to believe that Prufrock is on his way to an afternoon tea, in which he is preparing to ask this "overwhelming question".<ref name=Perrine798/> Others, however, believe that Prufrock is not physically going anywhere, but rather, is playing through it in his mind.<ref name="Hec"/><ref name="Blasing"/> The intended audience is not evident. Some believe that Prufrock is talking to another person<ref>Headings, Philip R. ''T. S. Eliot''. (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982), 24-25.</ref> or directly to the reader,<ref name="Hec">Hecimovich, Gred A (editor). (accessed June 14, 2006), from McCoy, Kathleen; Harlan, Judith. ''English Literature from 1785''. (New York: HarperCollins, 1992).</ref> while others believe Prufrock's monologue is internal. Perrine writes "The 'you and I' of the first line are divided parts of Prufrock's own nature",<ref name=:Perrine" /> while Mutlu Konuk Blasing suggests that the "you and I" refers to the relationship between the dilemmas of the character and the author.<ref name="Blasing">Blasing, Mutlu Konuk, "On 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'", in ''American Poetry: The Rhetoric of Its Forms'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987).</ref> Similarly, critics dispute whether Prufrock is going somewhere during the course of the poem. In the first half of the poem, Prufrock uses various outdoor images (the sky, streets, cheap restaurants and hotels, fog), and talks about how there will be time for various things before "the taking of a toast and tea", and "time to turn back and descend the stair." This has led many to believe that Prufrock is on his way to an afternoon tea, in which he is preparing to ask this "overwhelming question".<ref name=Perrine798/> Others, however, believe that Prufrock is not physically going anywhere, but rather, is playing through it in his mind.<ref name="Hec" /><ref name="Blasing" />


Perhaps the most significant dispute lies over the "overwhelming question" that Prufrock is trying to ask. Many believe that Prufrock is trying to tell a woman of his romantic interest in her,<ref name=Perrine798/> pointing to the various images of women's arms and clothing and the final few lines in which Prufrock laments that the mermaids will not sing to him. Others, however, believe that Prufrock is trying to express some deeper philosophical insight or disillusionment with society, but fears rejection, pointing to statements that express a disillusionment with society such as "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" (line 51). Many believe that the poem is a criticism of ] society and Prufrock's dilemma represents the inability to live a meaningful existence in the modern world.<ref>Mitchell, Roger. "On 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'", in Myers, Jack and Wojahan, David (editors). ''A Profile of Twentieth-Century American Poetry''. Southern Illinois University Press, 1991.</ref> McCoy and Harlan wrote "For many readers in the 1920s, Prufrock seemed to epitomize the frustration and impotence of the modern individual. He seemed to represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment."<ref name="Hec"/> Perhaps the most significant dispute lies over the "overwhelming question" that Prufrock is trying to ask. Many believe that Prufrock is trying to tell a woman of his romantic interest in her,<ref name=Perrine /> pointing to the various images of women's arms and clothing and the final few lines in which Prufrock laments that the mermaids will not sing to him. Others, however, believe that Prufrock is trying to express some deeper philosophical insight or disillusionment with society, but fears rejection, pointing to statements that express a disillusionment with society such as "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" (line 51). Many believe that the poem is a criticism of ] society and Prufrock's dilemma represents the inability to live a meaningful existence in the modern world.<ref>Mitchell, Roger. "On 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'", in Myers, Jack and Wojahan, David (editors). ''A Profile of Twentieth-Century American Poetry''. (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991).</ref> McCoy and Harlan wrote "For many readers in the 1920s, Prufrock seemed to epitomize the frustration and impotence of the modern individual. He seemed to represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment."<ref name="Hec"/>


As the poem uses the ] technique, it is often difficult to determine what is meant to be interpreted literally or symbolically. In general, Eliot uses imagery which is indicative of Prufrock's character,<ref name=Perrine798/> representing aging and decay. For example, "When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table" (lines 2-3), the "sawdust restaurants" and "cheap hotels," the yellow fog, and the afternoon "Asleep...tired... or it malingers" (line 77), are reminiscent of languor and decay, while Prufrock's various concerns about his hair and teeth, as well as the mermaids "Combing the white hair of the waves blown back / When the wind blows the water white and black," show his concern over aging. As the poem uses the ] technique, it is often difficult to determine what is meant to be interpreted literally or symbolically. In general, Eliot uses imagery which is indicative of Prufrock's character,<ref name="Perrine" /> representing aging and decay. For example, "When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table" (lines 2-3), the "sawdust restaurants" and "cheap hotels," the yellow fog, and the afternoon "Asleep...tired... or it malingers" (line 77), are reminiscent of languor and decay, while Prufrock's various concerns about his hair and teeth, as well as the mermaids "Combing the white hair of the waves blown back / When the wind blows the water white and black," show his concern over aging.


== Use of allusion == == Use of allusion ==
Like many of Eliot's poems, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" makes numerous allusions to other works, which are often ]ic themselves.<ref name=Perrine798/> Like many of Eliot's poems, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" makes numerous allusions to other works, which are often ]ic themselves.<ref name="Perrine" />
Laurence Perrine identifies the following allusions in the poem: Laurence Perrine identifies the following allusions in the poem:


Line 90: Line 90:
Johan Schimanski identifies these: Johan Schimanski identifies these:
*In the final section of the poem, Prufrock rejects the idea that he is ], suggesting that he is merely "an attendant lord" (112) whose purpose is to "advise the prince" (114), a likely allusion to ]. Prufrock also brings in a common Shakespearean element of the ], as he claims he is also "Almost, at times, the Fool." *In the final section of the poem, Prufrock rejects the idea that he is ], suggesting that he is merely "an attendant lord" (112) whose purpose is to "advise the prince" (114), a likely allusion to ]. Prufrock also brings in a common Shakespearean element of the ], as he claims he is also "Almost, at times, the Fool."
*"Among some talk of you and me" may be a reference to ] 32 of ]'s first translation of the '']'' ("There was a Door to which I found no Key / There was a Veil past which I could not see / Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE / There seemed - and then no more of THEE and ME.")<ref>{{cite web | last=Schimanski | first=Johan | title=T. S. Eliot, 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock' | url=http://www.hum.uit.no/a/schimanski/littres/pruann.htm | publisher=Universitetet i Tromsø | accessdate=2006-08-08}}</ref> *"Among some talk of you and me" may be a reference to ] 32 of ]'s first translation of the '']'' ("There was a Door to which I found no Key / There was a Veil past which I could not see / Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE / There seemed - and then no more of THEE and ME.")<ref>Schimanski, Johan (at Universitetet i Tromsø). Retrieved 8 August 2006.</ref>


==In popular culture== ==In popular culture==
Line 99: Line 99:


==Further reading== ==Further reading==
*Drew, Elizabeth. ''T. S. Eliot: The Design of His Poetry''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949. *Drew, Elizabeth. ''T. S. Eliot: The Design of His Poetry'' (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949).
*Gallup, Donald. ''T. S. Eliot: A Bibliography (A Revised and Extended Edition)'' pp.&nbsp;23, 196 (Harcourt Brace & World 1969) *Gallup, Donald. ''T. S. Eliot: A Bibliography (A Revised and Extended Edition)'' (New York: Harcourt Brace & World, 1969), 23, 196.
*Luthy, Melvin J. The Case of Prufrock's Grammar. (1978) '']'', 39, 841-853. *Luthy, Melvin J. "The Case of Prufrock's Grammar" in '']'' (1978) 39:841-853.
*Soles, Derek. The Prufrock Makeover. (1999). '']'', 88, 59-61. *Soles, Derek. "The Prufrock Makeover" in '']'' (1999), 88:59-61.
*Sorum, Eve. "Masochistic Modernisms: A Reading of Eliot and Woolf." Journal of Modern Literature. 28 (3): 25-43. Spring 2005. *Sorum, Eve. "Masochistic Modernisms: A Reading of Eliot and Woolf." Journal of Modern Literature. 28 (3), (Spring 2005) 25-43.
*Sinha, Arun Kumar and Vikram, Kumar 'The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock' (Critical Essay with Detailed Annotations), T. S. Eliot: An Intensive Study of Selected Poems, Spectrum Books Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, (2005). *Sinha, Arun Kumar and Vikram, Kumar. "'The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock' (Critical Essay with Detailed Annotations)" in ''T. S. Eliot: An Intensive Study of Selected Poems'' (New Delhi: Spectrum Books Pvt. Ltd, 2005).
*Walcutt, Charles Child. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". (1957). ''College English'', 19, 71-72. *Walcutt, Charles Child. "Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in ''College English'' (1957) 19:71-72.


==External links== ==External links==

Revision as of 16:30, 11 June 2013

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
by T. S. Eliot
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
PublisherPoetry
Lines140
Pages6 (1915 printing)
8 (1917 printing)
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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock at Wikisource

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", commonly known as "Prufrock", is a poem by American-British poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). Eliot began writing "Prufrock" in February 1910 and it was first published June 1915 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse at the instigation of Ezra Pound (1885–1972). It was later printed as part of a twelve-poem pamphlet (or chapbook) titled Prufrock and Other Observations in 1917. At the time of its publication, Prufrock was considered shocking and offensive; heralding a paradigmatic cultural shift from the late 19th century Romantic verse and Georgian lyrics to Modernism. The poem is regarded as the beginning of Eliot's career as an influential poet.

The poem's structure was heavily influenced by Eliot's extensive reading of Dante Alighieri and makes several references to the Bible and other literary works—including William Shakespeare's plays Henry IV Part II, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet; to the poetry of seventeenth-century metaphysical poet John Donne, and the nineteenth-century French Symbolists. Eliot narrates the conscious experience of the character, Prufrock, using a stream of consciousness technique, a form developed by his fellow Modernist writers. The poem, described as a "drama of literary anguish" is a dramatic interior monologue of an urban man, stricken with feelings of isolation and an incapability for decisive action that is said "to epitomize frustration and impotence of the modern individual" and "represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment." Prufrock laments his physical and intellectual inertia, the lost opportunities in his life and lack of spiritual progress, and he is haunted by reminders of unattained carnal love. With visceral feelings of weariness, regret, embarrassment, longing, emasculation, sexual frustration, a sense of decay, and an awareness of mortality, "Prufrock" has become one of the most recognized voices in modern literature.

Composition and publication

Composed mainly between February 1910 and July or August 1911, the poem was first published in Chicago in the June 1915 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, after Ezra Pound, the magazine's foreign editor, persuaded Harriet Monroe, its founder, that Eliot was unique: "He has actually trained himself AND modernized himself ON HIS OWN. The rest of the promising young have done one or the other, but never both." This was Eliot's first publication of a poem outside school or university.

In November 1915 the poem—along with Eliot's "Portrait of a Lady," "The Boston Evening Transcript," "Hysteria," and "Miss Helen Slingsby"—was published in London in Pound's Catholic Anthology 1914–1915, which was printed by Elkin Mathews. In June 1917 The Egoist, a small publishing firm run by Dora Marsden, published a pamphlet entitled Prufrock and Other Observations (London), containing twelve poems by Eliot. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was the first in the volume.

Eliot's notebook of draft poems, published posthumously in 1996 by Harcourt Brace, has the dates "July–Aug. 1911" at the end of the poem marking him as young as 22 when the poem was completed. The notebook includes 38 lines from the middle of a draft version of the poem. This section, now known as Prufrock's Pervigilium, describes the "vigil" of Prufrock through an evening and night.

The Harvard Vocarium at Harvard College recorded Eliot's reading of Prufrock and other poems in 1947, as part of their ongoing series of poetry readings by their authors.

Title

In the drafts, the poem had the subtitle "Prufrock among the Women."Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). The form of Prufrock's name is like the name that Eliot was using at the time: T. Stearns Eliot.

On the origin of the name "Prufrock", there was a Prufrock-Litton Company, a furniture store, in St. Louis at the time Eliot lived there.

In a 1950 letter, Eliot said, "I did not have, at the time of writing the poem, and have not yet recovered, any recollection of having acquired this name in any way, but I think that it must be assumed that I did, and that the memory has been obliterated."

Epigraph

In context, the epigraph refers to a meeting between Dante and Guido da Montefeltro, who was condemned to the eighth circle of Hell for providing counsel to Pope Boniface VIII, who wished to use Guido's advice for a nefarious undertaking. This encounter follows Dante's meeting with Ulysses, who himself is also condemned to the circle of the Fraudulent. According to Ron Banerjee, the epigraph serves to cast ironic light on Prufrock's intent. Like Guido, Prufrock had intended his story never be told, and so by quoting Guido, Eliot reveals his view of Prufrock's love song.

Frederick Locke contends that Prufrock himself is suffering from multiple personalities of sorts, and that he embodies both Guido and Dante in the Inferno analogy. One is the storyteller; the other the listener who later reveals the story to the world. He posits, alternatively, that the role of Guido in the analogy is indeed filled by Prufrock, but that the role of Dante is filled by you, the reader, as in "Let us go then, you and I," (1). In that, the reader is granted the power to do as he pleases with Prufrock's love song.

Although he finally chose not to use it, the draft version of the epigraph for the poem came from Dante's Purgatorio (XXVI, 147-148):

'sovegna vos a temps de ma dolor'.
Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina.

Eliot provided this translation in his essay "Dante" (1929):

'be mindful in due time of my pain'.
Then dived he back into that fire which refines them.

He would eventually use the quotation in the closing lines of his 1922 poem The Waste Land. The quotation that Eliot did choose comes from Dante also. Inferno (XXVII, 61-66) reads:

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

One translation, from the Princeton Dante Project, is:

"If I but thought that my response were made
to one perhaps returning to the world,
this tongue of flame would cease to flicker.
But since, up from these depths, no one has yet
returned alive, if what I hear is true,
I answer without fear of being shamed."

Interpretation

Because the poem is concerned primarily with the irregular musings of the narrator, it can be difficult to interpret. Laurence Perrine wrote, " presents the apparently random thoughts going through a person's head within a certain time interval, in which the transitional links are psychological rather than logical". This stylistic choice makes it difficult to determine exactly what is literal and what is symbolic. On the surface, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" relays the thoughts of a sexually frustrated middle-aged man who wants to say something but is afraid to do so, and ultimately does not. The dispute, however, lies in to whom Prufrock is speaking, whether he is actually going anywhere, what he wants to say, and to what the various images refer.

The intended audience is not evident. Some believe that Prufrock is talking to another person or directly to the reader, while others believe Prufrock's monologue is internal. Perrine writes "The 'you and I' of the first line are divided parts of Prufrock's own nature", while Mutlu Konuk Blasing suggests that the "you and I" refers to the relationship between the dilemmas of the character and the author. Similarly, critics dispute whether Prufrock is going somewhere during the course of the poem. In the first half of the poem, Prufrock uses various outdoor images (the sky, streets, cheap restaurants and hotels, fog), and talks about how there will be time for various things before "the taking of a toast and tea", and "time to turn back and descend the stair." This has led many to believe that Prufrock is on his way to an afternoon tea, in which he is preparing to ask this "overwhelming question". Others, however, believe that Prufrock is not physically going anywhere, but rather, is playing through it in his mind.

Perhaps the most significant dispute lies over the "overwhelming question" that Prufrock is trying to ask. Many believe that Prufrock is trying to tell a woman of his romantic interest in her, pointing to the various images of women's arms and clothing and the final few lines in which Prufrock laments that the mermaids will not sing to him. Others, however, believe that Prufrock is trying to express some deeper philosophical insight or disillusionment with society, but fears rejection, pointing to statements that express a disillusionment with society such as "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" (line 51). Many believe that the poem is a criticism of Edwardian society and Prufrock's dilemma represents the inability to live a meaningful existence in the modern world. McCoy and Harlan wrote "For many readers in the 1920s, Prufrock seemed to epitomize the frustration and impotence of the modern individual. He seemed to represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment."

As the poem uses the stream of consciousness technique, it is often difficult to determine what is meant to be interpreted literally or symbolically. In general, Eliot uses imagery which is indicative of Prufrock's character, representing aging and decay. For example, "When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table" (lines 2-3), the "sawdust restaurants" and "cheap hotels," the yellow fog, and the afternoon "Asleep...tired... or it malingers" (line 77), are reminiscent of languor and decay, while Prufrock's various concerns about his hair and teeth, as well as the mermaids "Combing the white hair of the waves blown back / When the wind blows the water white and black," show his concern over aging.

Use of allusion

Like many of Eliot's poems, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" makes numerous allusions to other works, which are often symbolic themselves. Laurence Perrine identifies the following allusions in the poem:

  • In "Time for all the works and days of hands" (29) the phrase 'works and days' is the title of a long poem - a description of agricultural life and a call to toil - by the early Greek poet Hesiod.
  • "I know the voices dying with a dying fall" (52) echoes Orsino's first lines in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
  • The prophet of "Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter / I am no prophet - and here's no great matter" (81-2) is John the Baptist, whose head was delivered to Salome by Herod as a reward for her dancing (Matthew 14:1-11, and Oscar Wilde's play Salome).
  • "To have squeezed the universe into a ball" (92) and "indeed there will be time" (23) echo the closing lines of Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress'. Other phrases such as, "there will be time" and "there is time" are reminiscent of the opening line of that poem: "Had we but world enough and time". Marvell's words in turn echo the General Prologue of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, "whil I have tyme and space".
  • "'I am Lazarus, come from the dead'" (94) may be either the beggar Lazarus (of Luke 16) returning for the rich man who was not permitted to return from the dead to warn the brothers of a rich man about Hell, or the Lazarus (of John 11) whom Christ raised from the dead, or both.
  • "Full of high sentence" (117) echoes Chaucer's description of the Clerk of Oxford in the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales.
  • "There will be time to murder and create" is a biblical allusion to Ecclesiastes 3.

Johan Schimanski identifies these:

  • In the final section of the poem, Prufrock rejects the idea that he is Prince Hamlet, suggesting that he is merely "an attendant lord" (112) whose purpose is to "advise the prince" (114), a likely allusion to Polonius. Prufrock also brings in a common Shakespearean element of the Fool, as he claims he is also "Almost, at times, the Fool."
  • "Among some talk of you and me" may be a reference to Quatrain 32 of Edward FitzGerald's first translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam ("There was a Door to which I found no Key / There was a Veil past which I could not see / Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE / There seemed - and then no more of THEE and ME.")

In popular culture

Further information: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock in popular culture

References

  1. ^ Eliot, T. S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in Monroe, Harriet (editor), Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (June 1915), 130-135.
  2. ^ Eliot, T. S. Prufrock and Other Observations (London: The Egotist, Ltd., 1917), 9-16.
  3. McCoy, Kathleen, and Harlan, Judith. English Literature From 1785 (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 265-66.
  4. Bercovitch, Sacvan. The Cambridge History of American Literature. Volume 5. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 99.
  5. Southam, B.C. A Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1994), 45.
  6. Capitalization and italics original. Quoted in Mertens, Richard. "Letter By Letter" in The University of Chicago Magazine (August 2001). Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  7. Miller, James Edward. T.S. Eliot: The Making of an American poet, 1888-1922. (State College, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005), 297.
  8. ^ Eliot, T. S., and Ricks, Christopher B. (editor). Inventions of the March Hare: Poems 1909-1917 Ed. Christopher B. Ricks. (New York: Harcourt, 1996).
  9. Woodberry Poetry Room (Harvard College Library). Poetry Readings: Guide
  10. Eliot, T. S. The Letters of T. S. Eliot. (New York: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1988). 1:135.
  11. Note that the furniture store name is given as Prufrock-Littau in many books and websites. However, pre-1911 advertising postcards clearly show the furniture store name as Prufrock-Litton.
  12. Montesi, Al, and Deposki, Richard. Downtown St. Louis (Arcadia Publishing, 2001), 65. ISBN 0-7385-0816-0
  13. Christine H. The Daily Postcard: Prufrock-Litton - St. Louis, Missouri. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  14. Missouri History Museum. | accessdate=February 21, 2012 Lighting fixture in front of Prufrock-Litton Furniture Company. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  15. Stepanchev, Stephen. "The Origin of J. Alfred Prufrock" in Modern Language Notes. (1951), 66:400-401.
  16. Banerjee, Ron D. K. "The Dantean Overview: The Epigraph to 'Prufrock'" in Comparative Literature. (1972) 87:962-966.
  17. Locke, Frederick W. "Dante and T. S. Eliot's Prufrock." in Modern Language Notes. (1963) 78:51-59.
  18. Dante Alighieri, and Hollander Robert and Hollander, Jean (translators), The Inferno. (Princeton: Princeton Dante Project). Retrieved 3 November 2011.
  19. ^ Perrine, Laurence. Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 1st edition. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1956), 798.
  20. On 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' (accessed June 14, 2006).
  21. Headings, Philip R. T. S. Eliot. (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982), 24-25.
  22. ^ Hecimovich, Gred A (editor). English 151-3; T. S. Eliot "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" notes (accessed June 14, 2006), from McCoy, Kathleen; Harlan, Judith. English Literature from 1785. (New York: HarperCollins, 1992).
  23. Cite error: The named reference :Perrine" was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Blasing, Mutlu Konuk, "On 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'", in American Poetry: The Rhetoric of Its Forms (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987).
  25. Cite error: The named reference Perrine798 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. Mitchell, Roger. "On 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'", in Myers, Jack and Wojahan, David (editors). A Profile of Twentieth-Century American Poetry. (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991).
  27. Perrine, pp. 798-789.
  28. Schimanski, Johan T. S. Eliot 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock' (at Universitetet i Tromsø). Retrieved 8 August 2006.

Further reading

  • Drew, Elizabeth. T. S. Eliot: The Design of His Poetry (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949).
  • Gallup, Donald. T. S. Eliot: A Bibliography (A Revised and Extended Edition) (New York: Harcourt Brace & World, 1969), 23, 196.
  • Luthy, Melvin J. "The Case of Prufrock's Grammar" in College English (1978) 39:841-853.
  • Soles, Derek. "The Prufrock Makeover" in The English Journal (1999), 88:59-61.
  • Sorum, Eve. "Masochistic Modernisms: A Reading of Eliot and Woolf." Journal of Modern Literature. 28 (3), (Spring 2005) 25-43.
  • Sinha, Arun Kumar and Vikram, Kumar. "'The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock' (Critical Essay with Detailed Annotations)" in T. S. Eliot: An Intensive Study of Selected Poems (New Delhi: Spectrum Books Pvt. Ltd, 2005).
  • Walcutt, Charles Child. "Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in College English (1957) 19:71-72.

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