The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock

Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965), usually known as T. S. Eliot, was an essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and "one of the twentieth century's major poets".  He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to an old Yankee family. He immigrated to England in 1914 (at age 25), settling, working and marrying there. He was eventually naturalized as a British subject in 1927 at age 39, renouncing his American citizenship.

Eliot attracted widespread attention for his poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915), which is seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement. It was followed by some of the best-known poems in the English language, including The Waste Land (1922),The Hollow Men (1925), Ash Wednesday (1930), and Four Quartets (1945). He is also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry."

When T. S. Eliot died, wrote Robert Giroux, "the world became a lesser place." Certainly the most imposing poet of his time, Eliot was revered by Igor Stravinsky "not only as a great sorcerer of words but as the very key keeper of the language." For Alfred Kazin he was "themana known as 'T. S. Eliot,' the model poet of our time, the most cited poet and incarnation of literary correctness in the English-speaking world." Northrop Frye simply states: "A thorough knowledge of Eliot is compulsory for anyone interested in contemporary literature. Whether he is liked or disliked is of no importance, but he must be read." In 1945 Eliot wrote: "A poet must take as his material his own language as it is actually spoken around him." Correlatively, the duty of the poet, as Eliot emphasized in a 1943 lecture, "is only indirectly to the people: his direct duty is to his language, first to preserve, and second to extend and improve." Thus he dismisses the so-called "social function" of poetry. The only "method," Eliot once wrote, is "to be very intelligent." As a result, his poetry "has all the advantages of a highly critical habit of mind," writes A. Alvarez; "there is a coolness in the midst of involvement; he uses texts exactly for his own purpose; he is not carried away. Hence the completeness and inviolability of the poems. What he does in them can be taken no further.... [One gets] the impression that anything he turned his attention to he would perform with equal distinction." Alvarez believes that "the strength of Eliot's intelligence lies in its training; it is the product of a perfectly orthodox academic education." But Jacques Maritain once told Marshall McLuhan that "Eliot knows so much philosophy and theology that I do not see how he can write poetry at all." Eliot, however, never recognized a conflict between academic and creative pursuits. 

Eliot was to pursue four careers: editor, dramatist, literary critic, and philosophical poet. He was probably the most erudite poet of his time in the English language. His undergraduate poems were “literary” and conventional. His first important publication, and the first masterpiece of “modernism” in English, was “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

                                                Explanation and notes:

In the first line the poet introduces two persons, "you and I" -'. The reader immediately wonders who these people are and where they are going. It is obvious that the "I" is the speaker, and according to the title his name is Prufrock; but what about the other person? If we think of the title again, the "you" could be a lady; but the epigraph would suggest a different type of person. It could also be the reader, the one Prufrock speaks to. We do not know yet. We only know that it is evening and that they are walking through the streets of a sordid section of a certain city. We do not know its name but it seems representative of other great cities of modern western civilization. Then the speaker mentions a question, an overwhelming question, but he does not want to talk about it. And since the question is never asked in the poem, the answer is never given. We also learn that they are going to pay a visit to a place in which women talk of Michelangelo. After thinking of the women to be visited, the speaker returns to a vision of the streets, the fog, beautifully described as a cat that falls asleep. It seems that Prufrock is putting to sleep the vision he had of the city and also he is gaining time from the society that is waiting for him in the room where women are talking of Michelangelo. The somnolent image suggests Prufrock's mental state, his desire for inactivity, his in decision, his passivity and his reluctance to ask the overwhelming question. Prufrock tries to put off the decision and says that "there will be time" (line 23), though we do not really know for what there will be time. The next section increases the tension by raising the question "Do I dare?" (Line 38). This also shows Prufrock's fear of his society and the — 161 — people In It. Eventually he enters the room and remembers in three rhyming stanzas the times he has heard the same voices, seen the same people. He knows that society very well and he does not Like It. He finds It trivial and boring; he says: "I have measured out my Ulf e with coffee spoons" (Une 51). Then he starts to rehearse what he dares not to say, and he does not say It. He falls. He never asks the question, his only excuse being that he Is no prophet, that he does not have the strength of John the Baptist. After that mock-heroic tone and after that self-justification, Prufrock looks back upon the event and thinks about his failure. He asks: "Would It have been worth It, after all" (Une 87). But his fear of being misunderstood makes him accept his failure. If one, settling a pillow by her head, Should say: "That Is not what I meant at all. That Is not It, at all." (Unes 96-98)

 These three Ones give us a clue to the Initial question about the Identity of "you and I." We must conclude that "you" Is never a lady in the poem. She is "one;" the one who settles a pillow by "her" head and is susceptible to misunderstanding Prufrock. In the last part of the poem there is a great change: from a tone of self-mockery showing Prufrock as the Fool in an Elizabethan play to the language of romantic longing. Prufrock at the end tries to escape from the real world where he was defeated and he dreams of mermaids. Yet he cannot avoid the reality and he drowns. The poem is a song of desire and failure. It seems to be the story of what is taking place inside a man called Prufrock. Therefore we can say 162- that the poem Is a dramatic monologue, a dialogue between "you" and "I," both being the same person. Prufrock talks to himself. The "you" is the passionate self who insists on going to make the visit. The "I" is the one who consents and says "Let US go then..." (line 1); he is the timid self who does not dare, who does not ask the overwhelming question. If in the epigraph we had Guido's answer to Dante, somebody who, he believed, would never return to the world to report Guido's words, now in the poem we have the words of the condemned "I" who, like Guido, speaks freely only because he is sure that the "you" will not tell anybody about him. Now that we have thrown light on the mystery of the identity of the different people addressed in the poem, we still have to tackle the enigma of the "overwhelming question," which is never formulated in the poem. Is Prufrock trying to issue a marriage proposal? Is he trying to ask the lady called "one" in the poem to marry him or is he just asking about the meaning of this life? The answer may be different for different readers. But it seems to be irrelevant. We simply do not need to know what the question, "the overwhelming question," is. It is enough to know that Prufrock never asks the question; that he is unable to ask it. We should not look for a concealed narrative in the poem. T.S. Eliot is not presenting a story, but a personality. The poem is built around the timid person called Prufrock. This character needs to be analyzed.

 After reading the poem we think of Prufrock as an unattractive middle-aged man who grows old (line 120) and talks about his bald spot in his hair (line 40). He is aware of his weakness and disabilities: "I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,/ and I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker." (Lines 84-85) — 163 — Prufrock is conscious of being inferior. He knows he is not Prince Hamlet and he does not think the mermaids will sing to him. He knows that he cannot make a decisión. Therefore he takes refuge in self mockery. He is resigned to his failure. However, he is sensitive to criticism. He knows that people around him remark that his arms and legs are growing thin (line 44) and have him sprawling on a pin (line 57). J. Alfred Prufrock is an unhappy frustrated man. He is involved in a routine of social life and he does not feel comfortable in the society in which he is condemned to live. He sees boredom and monotony. Though he is conditioned by that fashionable society, he seems to be tired of the superficial and miserable existence he is leading. Besides, he is isolated in that alien world. He has a range of more or less obscure feelings that he cannot communicate due to his inhibitions and timidity. He then talks to himself and he suffers. Prufrock is a mask, a person through whom the tribulations of the modern city life are spoken. The American teacher and critic Hugh Kenner wrote in his article titled "Bradley" that J. Alfred Prufrock was "a name plus a voice." ^ T.S. Eliot used this voice to express the issues and the themes he was pondering over. One of the themes this poem develops is the tedium and dryness of modern life. It is an expression of the futility of life. The reader gets an intense personal view of the society, the city and the world in which Prufrock lives. The poem also conveys a sense of frustration which leads us into the main issue: the problem of communication. This theme, present throughout much of Eliot*s work, is incorporated in the poem by means of the question which is never asked. The speaker cannot get his message across. It does not matter whether the recipient of that message is a lady or not. The — 164 — fact is that communication fails. And the failure of communication is related to the theme of the individuals isolation, loneliness, and estrangement from other people. Prufrock is alienated from this world, like Guido and like the "patient etherized upon a table" (line 3). He should have been a crab "scuttling across the floors of silent seas" (line 74). The theme of lack of communication and understanding that Prufrock voices in his monologue has a close relationship with the way the poem is written, its style and structure. According to Leonard Unger ', there is a statement in the poem which suggests this connection between the problem of articulation Prufrock suffers and the mode of composition T.S. Eliot chose for his poem: "It is impossible to say just what I mean/ But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen" (lines 104-105). T.S. Eliot, like Prufrock, does not clearly say what he means; instead, like the magic lantern, the poem throws different pictures of Prufrock's mind on a screen. In order to express his feelings, the poet shows different corners of Prufrock's psyche in no particular order (the streets, the room, the fog, the room again, etc.). And all these images put together give the meaning of the poem. Therefore we cannot see a logical structure in the poem, despite the fact that it is divided into several sections. There is only the structure of the flow of thoughts in Prufrock's mind. The poem is based on the free association of ideas and images without connective and transitional passages. It renders the flow of impressions visual, auditory, physical, and subliminal-- that impinge on the consciousness of Prufrock, a technique similar to the stream of consciousness used by James Joyce a few years later. — 165 — Eliot's technique in this poem Is like that of a collage, composed of juxtaposed Images. "Prufrock" is made out of different elements: Images, literary references, remarks, the squalor, the beautiful, lyricism, brutality, etc. The whole sum of the elements builds up the meaning of the poem while the reader is delighted in trying to rationalize the association of elements. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is certainly modern in tone and diction. T.S. Eliot wrote a new kind of poetry, with irregular rhyming verse paragraphs, free verse, new themes, and attitudes. In spite of all the different influences, such as the English metaphysical poetry, the French Symbolist Movement, or Henry James °, the poem still remains an original piece of poetry.

                                                          Characters:

J. Alfred Prufrock: The speaker/narrator, a timid, overcautious middle-aged man who escorts his silent listener through streets in a shabby part of a city, past cheap hotels and restaurants, to a social gathering where women he would like to meet are conversing.  However, he is hesitant to take part in the activity for fear of making a fool of himself.

The Listener: An unidentified companion of Prufrock, could also be Prufrock’s inner self, one that prods him but fails to move him to action.

The Women: Women at a social gathering whom Prufrock would like to meet one of them but worries that she will look down on him.

The Lonely Men in Shirtsleeves: Leaning out of their windows, they smoke pipes.  They are like Prufrock in that they look upon a scene but do not become part of it.  The smoke from their pipes helps form the haze over the city, the haze that serves as a metaphor for a timid cat, which is Prufrock.

              Literary devices used in The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock:

It presents a bizarre personification/simile with end rhyme (lines 2 and 3), comparing the evening to an anesthetized hospital patient.  There are odd simile of lines 1-2: Let us go then you and I,/When the evening is spread out against the sky/Like a patient etherised upon a table.  How can the dusk look like a patient on a surgeon’s table about ready for the scalpel?  In lines (8-9), streets become persons because they follow an argument becomes a person because it has insidious intent (personification) and use of like to compare streets to an argument (simile). Lines 11-12 suggest Pruforck’s destination, his intent in the poem, Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’ / Let us go and make our visit.  In the context of the poem, where is Prufrock walking? Where may he be going?  Like the first three lines, lines 13 -14 always throw us in the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo.  Why are these two lines here, in the middle, suddenly?  What do they have to do with Prufrock’s thoughts?  It might be easier to consider oppositions.  How do the two lines suggest a very different environment from the preceding lines?

In lines (15-23), yellow fog and yellow smoke are both compared to a timid cat, which represents the timidity of Prufrock (metaphor).  This passage is an example of imagism, when a poet uses “pictures,” visual “images” of usually natural aspects of the world to convey mood, impressions, meaning. Eliot was very influenced by “imagist’ poetry at the time, poets who would write very short poems that often would focus on just one image.  In many ways, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a long series of imagist poems, linked together like a collage, in this case a sort of imagist-tapestry of Prufrock’s thoughts.  Why fog is yellow?  What does the yellow fog resemble in Eliot’s description?  When it rubs its muzzle and licked its tongue and Curled once about the house and fell asleep.  Why does Eliot compare the yellow fog to such resemblance?  In lines 24- 34, Prufrock repeats There will be time, six times. What type of mentality does Prufrock exhibit by repeating this line?  What kind of anxiety is he expressing? Why might he be expressing this particular type of anxiety?  When does a person, prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet?  What does he mean by, time yet for a hundred indecisions /And for a hundred visions and revisions? In lines 37-49, Prufrock offers the first real details about the place /event he is possibly walking to. As he imagines what might happen if he goes. What is Prufrock self-conscious of?  even paranoid about? What does his anxiety say about his supposed “crisis”?

In line (51), life is compared to coffee (metaphor).  Most of the lines in the poem have followed alliteration such as in lines (20-21), Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, And seeing that it was soft October night, in line (34), Before the taking of a toast and tea, in line (56) fix you in a formulated phrase, in line (58), When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall.  In this line, Prufrock compares himself to an insect preserved for display in a collection (metaphor).  In line (75), And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!  here, the evening is a sleeping person ( personification) and the evening is compared to a person (metaphor).  In lines (91-94), poet has used anaphora; 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.  There are use of hyperbole and metaphor.

Up until lines 110, what type of scenario does he imagine as possibly might have happened in the future? What situation does he imagine could have happened?  What does it say about Prufrock’s anxiety?  What clue does it give us as to why Prufrock is old and alone?  Lines 111-119 are famous, beginning with No! I am not Prince Hamlet and the Fool.  Notice the movement–from Hamlet to the Fool.  This is a kind of movement that happens a lot in the poem.  Notice the shift in mood, tone and rhythm in the final stanzas of the poem, lines 120 – 131. How does the mood, tone and rhythm of the poem change?  How might it reflect a change in Prufrock’s frame of mind?  How does the setting of seashore contribute to the change in tone?  Why does Prufrock bring up mermaids? What do mermaids symbolize (they have to be symbols, since mermaids don’t exist)?  Why does he shift from mermaids in the very end to “sea-girls”?  The last two stanzas of this poem are the most beautiful in any poetry.  When Eliot says, We have lingered in the chambers of the sea, and Till human voices wake us, and we drown?  Why do we linger Why do we drown?  Why is it human voices?  What other kinds of voices can there be?

Eliot repeats certain words and phrases several times, apparently to suggest the repetition and monotony in Prufrock’s life.  For example, how often he begins a line with And-20 times.  He also repeats other words as well as phrases and clauses-Let us go, In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo, There will be time, Do I dare, Should I presume, I have known, would it have been worth it.The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a modernistic poem that expresses the thoughts of the title character via the following:

Conversational Language Combined With the Stylized Language of Poetry:  For example, the poem opens straightforwardly with Let us go then, you and I.

Variations in Line Length and Meter:  Some lines contain only three words.  Others contain as many as fourteen.  The meter also varies.

Shifts in the Train of Thought: The train of thought sometimes shifts abruptly, without transition, apparently in imitation of the way the human mind works when it dreams or day dreams or reacts to an external stimulus.

Shifts in Topics Under Discussion: The subject under discussion sometimes shifts abruptly, from trifling matters one moment.  For example, one time Prufrock talks about the bald spot or the length of his trousers another time he talks about the time and universe.

Shifts From Abstract to Concrete (and Universal to Particular): The poem frequently toggles between (1) the abstract or universal and (2) the concrete or specific.  Examples of abstract language aremuttering retreats (line 5) and tedious argument of insidious intent(lines 8-9).  Examples of phrases or clauses with universal nouns are the muttering retreats and the women come and go.  Examples of concrete language are oyster-shells (line 7) and soot (line 19).  Examples of particular (specific) language are Michelangelo (line 14) and October (line 21).

Shifts From Obvious Allusions or References to Oblique Allusions or References: Prufrock quotes, paraphrases, or cites historical or fictional persons, places, things, or ideas.  Some of his references are easy to fathom.  For example, everyone with a modicum of education knows who Michelangelo was (line 14).  Other references are difficult to fathom.  In his use of allusions, Eliot apparently wanted to show that Prufrock was well read and retained bits and pieces of what he read in his memory, like all of us.

Therefore, try to understand the poem as an assembly or collage of images that all somehow reflect Prufrock’s state of mind.  By the end of the poem, he is on the seashore, admitting his failure to reach his destination.  Seen as simply the romantic agonizing of a young man (Eliot was eighteen when he began the poem) over a woman he loves, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock would have a distinctly limited appeal.  However, the poem moves from this specific situation to explore the peculiarly modernist alienation of the individual in society to a point where internal emotional alienation occurs in loneliness.

            Symbolism in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot:

In the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," T. S. Elliot uses a vast amount of symbolism to depict the fantasy feelings of his character. The poem begins with Prufrock inviting us to take a walk with him, but we soon learn that this isn’t some romantic tree-line avenue by the river. Quite the opposite, it seems to be the seediest part of town. True to Prufrock’s circular and evasive style, the poem returns several times to the imagery of these gritty streets, with contrast with the prim and proper middle-class life he seems to lead. Just like our narrator, the streets are misleading and go nowhere.

Parts of the scene are depicted using personification. It’s not the "retreats" that are "muttering," but it seems that way because they are the kinds of places where you would run into muttering people. Also, the nights aren’t actually "restless"; they make people restless. In this simile, the winding, twisting streets are compared to a "tedious argument" that makes people lost with confusion. An "argument" is a line of reasoning – lawyers make arguments, for example. Usually arguments are supposed to answer questions, but this one only leads to "an overwhelming question." An extended metaphor comparing the streets to a cat runs through this entire stanza. Prufrock never actually uses the word "cat," but it’s clear from words like "muzzled," "back," "tongue," "leap," and "curled" that he is talking about a sly little kitty. The lamplight from the same streets reveals the hair on the woman’s arm Prufrock returns to the setting of the beginning of the poem to give the imagery of a man leaning out of a window and smoking a pipe.

Ø  EATING AND DRINKING:

 Prufrock offers a parody of this easy-going tradition, as Prufrock thinks constantly about what he has just eaten, what he’s about to eat is, or what he may or may not eat in the future, especially tea. He’s a total caffeine junky, which may explain why he seems to talk so much. It’s one of those small daily pleasures he just can’t live without.

 Most of the food and drinks in this poem sound nice, but not the oysters at this low-class restaurant. There’s even sawdust on the floor to soak up all the spilled drinks. Prufrock has big plans to accomplish before "toast and tea" in the afternoon. In this famous metaphor, Prufrock says that the spoons he uses to measure his coffee are like a "measure" of his life, as well. Here the spoon is a synecdoche that actually refers to the whole process of sitting around in the afternoon and sipping on a nice, hot, caffeinated drink. Essentially, he lives from one cup of coffee or tea to the next. It’s very ironic for Prufrock to claim he has fasted, considering that we know how much toast and marmalade he likes to eat. What nerve! The cups, marmalade, tea, and porcelain all refer, once again, to Prufrock’s favorite pastime. Did somebody say "tea time !It seems that Prufrock has trouble thinking of anything except eating”. Here he discusses "the matter" of his big question using the metaphor of taking a bite. Before Prufrock was wondering whether he "dared" to ask his question. Now that the opportunity has slipped by him, he has other important things to worry about: such as whether to eat a peach.

Ø    BODY PARPTS:

Prufrock is very concerned about his reputation, and he doesn’t want to stick out in a crowd. He’d rather people not notice him at all, which is why he seems uncomfortable with doctors and scientists, whose jobs involve examining and taking things about. But he’s also like a scientist himself in the way that he "cuts people up" (yikes) in his mind, reducing people, and especially women, to a collection of body parts. He loves to use the "synecdoche," which takes one part of an object and uses it to represent the whole. He talks about "faces," "eyes," and "arms," but never full human beings.

 Although it doesn’t directly deal with body parts, the simile comparing the evening to a patient who has been put under anesthesia on a surgery table prepares us for all the metaphorical "surgery" and "dissecting" that Prufrock does when he sees people only as body parts. The "faces" are a synecdoche; you don’t go out just to meet a face, you go out to meet the entire person .Prufrock’s "bald spot" is a repeated symbol of his middle age, just as his nice clothes are a symbol of his relatively high social class. Unfortunately, the clothes are only good feature (that we know of). Indeed, he also has thin arms and legs. Which is surprising, because the guy eats all the time. Again, the eyes are a synecdoche – they are a part of a person used to stand for the whole person. After all, eyes can’t "formulate," only a thinking person can do that. He uses the metaphor of a scientist examining an insect specimen to describe the way he feels under the gaze of those critical "eyes." Sigh, here we go again. The arms are a part that stands for a whole – in this case, a whole woman.

Prufrock gets decapitated! The poem just turned into a Quentin Tarantino movie. Actually, we’re not sure what he means here, except that he is making a metaphorical allusion to John the Baptist from the Bible, whose decapitation is regarded as an example of Christian sacrifice. Prufrock is comparing his own sacrifice to John’s.

Ø  THE OCEAN:

Prufrock suggests that he might be better suited to living in the deep, cold, lonely ocean than in the society of other people. We think he’s on to something. But when he ends up in the ocean through some crazy, dream-like turn events at the end of the poem, he doesn’t do very well. In fact, he drowns.The "claws" are synecdoche. They stand for a crab, which is the animal you’d most likely think of as "scuttling" on the ocean floor. Prufrock is calling himself crab-like. The poems ends with some amazing ocean imagery, including the singing mermaids and the sea-girls wearing seaweed. In one of the poem’s most creative metaphors, the white-capped waves are compared to "white hair."

Ø  ROOMS:

Prufrock spends most of the poem cooped up in rooms, eating, drinking, and overhearing other people’s conversations. He also fantasizes a lot about entering rooms – perhaps bedrooms – where the woman he loves can be found. Always the pessimist, he images a woman leaning on a pillow who rejects him. At the end of the poem, he just might have found the perfect room for him: at the bottom of the ocean.

We know that Prufrock is inside of a house – and probably standing outside a room – when he tries to decide whether to go in. He chickens out, though, and he’s back downstairs. The "dying fall" of voices from another room is an allusion to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Count Orsino, one of the lovers in that play, refers to the "dying fall" of music that reminds him of his love. Therefore, it is ironic, when the voices Prufrock hears are covered up by "music from a farther room."The woman in Prufrock’s imagined worst-case scenario must be in a room of some kind, probably a bedroom or some other comfortable place. She lays on a pillow and turns to the window. "Chambers" is a word that can refer to any small space – like the "chambers" of the heart muscle – or it can refer specifically to a bedroom

Ø  Hamlet:

Prufrock spends much of the poem acting like the notoriously indecisive Hamlet. But, in the end, he decides that even indecision is too decisive for him. No, he’s more like an assistant to a lord – a guy who does nothing but follows orders and generally acts like a tool. In this important metaphor, Prufrock likens himself to Prince Hamlet, the title character from Shakespeare’s most famous play. But then he decides he’s actually more of an "attendant lord" who could be confused for a fool, which we think is an allusion to Polonius, the father of the character Ophelia in the same play.

                        Imagery in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":

 T.S. Eliot uses the distinctly modernist style of Imagism to construct his poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Imagism, a literary movement closely linked to modernism, is based on the principles that poetry should be constructed of precise descriptions of concrete images. The language used by Imagists is clear and exact. Ezra Pound, one of the most influential Imagist poets, defined this movement by saying: "We are not a school of painters, but we believe that poetry should render particulars exactly and not deal in vague generalities, however magnificent and sonorous." Knowing Eliot's involvement with this movement, his use of imagery and description becomes especially important to the reader. His use of precise language invites readers to examine each word and image closely. In order to understand the meaning behind this poem, the reader must dissect Eliot's imagery, analyze its symbolic meaning, and find thematic patterns.

Ø  Thinning and Baldness:

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair-

[They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!"]...

My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin-

[They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!" (40-44)

The reoccurring image of baldness, and furthermore Prufrock's obsessive anxiety about his own thinning hair, draws the reader's attention to the theme of self-consciousness in this poem. As mentioned by critic Margaret Blum, Prufrock alludes to his own baldness or thinning hair on four different occasions during his dramatic monologue. Prufrock's anxiety about his own baldness, and also about the feebleness of his body, can be related to his obsessive fear regarding aging and death. This theme is again echoed as Prufrock proclaims: "I have seen the Eternal footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short I was afraid" (lines 85-86). Here, Prufrock expresses the belief that death itself mocks him in his old age. Through this passage, Eliot again displays Prufrock's self-consciousness and fear as he nears the end of his life. The protagonist's constant introspection and anxiety about his own death develops the theme of the mortality and fragility of human life. Prufrock's apparent concern with his image and the way in which he is perceived by the guests at the party also serves to highlight his difficulties and anxieties regarding human interaction- a theme that is echoed throughout the poem in various other images.

Ø  Michelangelo:

In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo (13-14)

This repeated mention of Michelangelo by the women in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" serves as more than just a representation of the idle chatter of the attendees of the tea party. This allusion highlights the theme of sexual anxiety as suggested by Tepper in her article "Nation and Eros." Michelangelo, a world-renown painter, sculptor and poet, serves as a model of the quintessential "Renaissance man", the male ideal for perfection. An image also associated with Michelangelo is his sculpture of David, considered to be the embodiment of male physical perfection. As discussed in terms of Prufrock's fear of aging and death, he also faces severe sexual anxiety when faced with this idea of this paradigm for the perfect male and his own inadequacy. Unable to compare with Michelangelo's status as a Renaissance man or David's standard of physical perfection, Prufrock turns self-conciously inward to obsess over his own "decisions and revisions" and the way in which he appears to members of the opposite sex. In many ways, as this allusion and Prufrock's reaction demonstrate, this poem deals with the inherent inadequacy we experience and the anxiety we feel as human beings interacting with one another.

Ø  "Ragged Claws" and Allusions to Hamlet:

I should have been a pair of ragged claws

Scuttling across the floors of silent seas (73-74)

This image of "ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas" reiterates the previously discussed theme of aging and mortality and also can be read as an allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet, a play that is referenced several times in the poem. But before analyzing this line as an allusion in the context of Hamlet, many critics, like Robert Fleissner, argue that the image has an innate meaning that fits well with the ideas woven together in this poem. Fleissner views the use of this crustacean as a symbol of growing old and futile. The use of the crab, especially, conjures images of futility, of moving slowly and with great difficulty- images also associated with the process of aging and approaching death. In a colloquial sense, this image of the crab brings to mind the idea of "crabbiness" or ill-tempered petulance that is also often linked to growing old and senile. While one interpretation of this image is based on its context within the poem, other some believe that it takes on a more fully-developed meaning when read as an allusion to Hamlet. Many critics look to Polonius's line to Hamlet, "if, like a crab, you could go backward" (2.2.205-206), to interpret Eliot's mention of "ragged claws scuttling." In this light, his alignment of Prufrock with the image of a crab ties back to the protagonist's feelings of self-consciousness and regret and echoes his obsession with "decisions and revisions." As Prufrock nears the end of his life and begin to grapple with his own mortality, he turns fretfully inward and wishes regretfully to be able to revise his own past. As seen though both interpretations of this image, it furthers Eliot's theme of aging and death as well as the anxiety and self-consciousness that comes about in response to this process.

Ø  The Peach:

Shall I part my hair from behind? Do I dare eat a peach? (122)

 Eliot only briefly mentions the peach in this poem, it has come to be one of the most critically contested images, in terms of deciphering its meaning. In his book, Ascending the Prufrockian Stair, Robert Fleissner dedicates an entire chapter to offering various interpretations of "Prufrock's Peach." Firstly, he considers the idea that the peach, in this context, could be a reference to the Forbidden Fruit of the biblical Creation story. With this interpretation, Prufrock must choose between knowledge and immortality. This struggle fits in closely with Prufrock's constant grappling with his own mortality. In Prufrock's eyes, he has already eaten the biblical fruit and must now heed the consequences: a burdensome awareness of the world around him and his own approaching death. Another interpretation by Fleissner also broaches the topic of Prufrock's fear of aging. He believe that Prufrock's uneasiness in biting into the peach stems from his fear of losing his teeth while doing so. Much like with his obsession with his thinning hair, Prufrock is plagued by self-consiousness and panic that his body will fail him even in everyday tasks such as eating. Finally, many critics agree on the idea that the peach can be taken as a sexual symbol, representative of Prufrock's reoccuring feelings of sexual inadequacy and anxiety when faced with human interaction. With the image of the peach representing female sexuality, and especially with his self-doubt in considering whether to eat the peach, Prufrock revisits the feelings of inadequacy that he presents in his inability to compare to Michelangelo's David. Notably, the peach is used as a means to objectify women and female sexuality. As explained previously with the speaker's tendency to represent women as mere body parts, this objectification is a result of Prufrock's anxiety when faced with human interaction. This anxiety, it seems, is only intensified when dealing with the potential of sexual relations. While there is no conclusive agreement as to the meaning of the peach, most critical interpretations are in accord that this image in some way enhances the themes of Prufrock's fear of aging and death, his feelings of inadequacy and self-deprecation, or his panic when interacting with other humans.

                                             Style and stetting:

When one thinks of a love song, they think of the narrator gushing about their object of affection, their one true love. The narrator is supposed to go on and on about how in love they are and how all they think about is that one and only person. Sometimes love songs are sad and the narrator ends up alone and sometimes they have a “happily ever after” ending similar to those in fairytales. Most of the time, love songs live up to their name and are about love. In T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” some of these expectations are anticipated to make their way in to the poem in some way or another, yet that is not the case; the title of the poem is merely an ironic aspect in which Eliot weakens the expectations of the poem.

 In Eliot’s love song, irony is spread throughout the setting, tone, and even the speaker’s attitude. The story takes place in an old town where everything is so quiet “like a patient etherised upon a table.” The town is not a calm and peaceful place to be living, instead it is like an old and deserted ghost town with “half-deserted streets...one-night cheap hotels / and sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells,” the complete opposite of what one would picture a love song taking place in. Instead of comparing the town’s quietness to a medicated patient lying on a cold metal table, the reader expects to read about only hearing the wind blowing and the river running through the town giving the song a peaceful setting. Rather than hotels with flashing lights that don’t even work and floors covered in sawdust, it is anticipated that the town looks like it was taken straight out of “Beauty and the Beast” with cobblestone roads and fountains surrounded by flowers. The setting of this love song is the farthest one would go when thinking about love, giving the poem that ironic flair. 

  Along with the creepy silence of the town, yellow smog engulfs everything in sight, “[Rubbing] its back upon the window-panes” and “Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening.” The thick smog is being compared to a cat that lingers at night, covering every surface giving the town an even more exaggerated eerie feeling. His indecisive thoughts are also being compared to the smog. Every morning he has “[A] hundred visions and revisions / Before taking of a toast and tea.” His indecisiveness takes over his mind and before he even eats breakfast he thinks of all these thoughts.

  After getting past the setting of the love song, J. Alfred Prufrock is introduced as a very self conscious man at a gathering with plenty of women. While looking around he sees all the women “Talking of Michelangelo.” These women are middle and upper class people putting on an act talking about the fine arts. When Prufrock wonders to himself if he should go and approach any of the women, he doesn’t know what to talk about; he’s not sure if he should speak about the poor class and “Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows.” Prufrock also worries the entire night that all the beautiful women are analyzing him, tearing him apart head-to-toe like a bug “[W]riggling on the wall.” Instead of noticing how modest and put together he looks, Prufrock feels the thoughts will only be negative with the women thinking, “How his hair is growing thin” and “[H]ow his arms and legs are thin.” Instead of giving any of the women a chance, Prufrock shot them all down ending what never even started of the love song. Prufrock also tries to boost his ego by putting down the women talking about their “Arms that are braceleted and white and bare / [But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!].”

  The tone of the love song is quite depressing. Although the reader expects some sense of romanticism in the poem, Prufrock does everything to avoid such a thing. He stands thinking for some time because he cannot decide if he should talk to a girl or not. Towards the end of the poem, Prufrock decides against it and doesn’t make the effort, therefore setting himself up for failure. He is just too afraid to talk to a girl, like a young boy thinking about approaching his crush only Prufrock is an older man. His confidence is just so shot down that even seeing a women essentially makes him feel terrible about himself. Trying to make himself feel better, in addition to putting down the pretty women, Prufrock comes to a self realization that talking to these people won’t get him anywhere. He wonders if “[W]ould it have been worth it, after all,” after drinking tea and having small talk; his thoughts are along the lines of “Why should I bother talking to this girl if nothing is going to come from it? What’s the point?” By thinking this way, Prufrock will never be able to experience that love song type romance or any relationship at all.

  The last few stanzas of the poem, Prufrock talks about the beautiful, mythical mermaid. He believes that even the mermaid, a fictional character, won’t sing to him. No beautiful person will ever want to have anything to do with him. By saying that, pity is felt towards Prufrock, but it is undeserved pity. Yes, his confidence is very low and he feels very self conscious, but he doesn’t give love a chance and believes that it isn’t worth it. If Prufrock made an effort to talk to the women at the party and was turned down, the pity would be deserved.

  Songs about love are not supposed to involve eery towns and men with no confidence making no interactions at all with women. In the “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” all expectations of romance are shot down within the first stanza. Everything that we read in romantic stories not at all what this love song is like; the aspects of this poem go against all romantic ideas with the setting, the tone, and the attitude of the speaker. Not even one sentence of the poem is fairytale worthy. Irony is embedded into this love song everywhere just because it goes against everything you would normally expect from something entitled “The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock.”

                                                                Themes

There are many themes within The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, written by T.S Eliot – most of these themes are associated with specfic verse or rehtoric devices used within the poem.

Ø  The Damaged Psyche of Humanity

Like many modernist writers, Eliot wanted his poetry to express the fragile psychological state of humanity in the twentieth century.  As for England, the aftershocks of World War I directly contributed to the dissolution of the British Empire. Eliot saw society as paralyzed and wounded, and he imagined that culture was crumbling and dissolving. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1917) demonstrates this sense of indecisive paralysis as the titular speaker wonders whether he should eat a piece of fruit, make a radical change, or if he has the fortitude to keep living. Humanity’s collectively damaged psyche prevented people from communicating with one another, an idea that Eliot explored in many works, including “A Game of Chess” (the second part of The Waste Land) and “The Hollow Men.”

Ø  The Power of Literary History

Only the very best new work will subtly shift the stream’s current and thus improve the literary tradition. Eliot also argued that the literary past must be integrated into contemporary life. The Waste Land juxtaposes fragments of various elements of literary and mythic traditions with scenes and sounds from modern life.

Ø  The Changing Nature of Gender Roles

Over the course of Eliot’s life, gender roles and sexuality became increasingly flexible, and Eliot reflected those changes in his work. In the repressive Victorian era of the nineteenth century, women were confined to the domestic sphere, sexuality was not discussed or publicly explored, and a puritanical atmosphere dictated most social interactions. Eliot simultaneously lauded the end of the Victorian era and expressed concern about the freedoms inherent in the modern age. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” reflects the feelings of emasculation experienced by many men as they returned home from World War I to find women empowered by their new role as wage earners. Prufrock, unable to make a decision, watches women wander in and out of a room, “talking of Michelangelo” (14), and elsewhere admires their downy, bare arms. . With Tiresias, Eliot creates a character that embodies wholeness, represented by the two genders coming together in one body.

Ø  Hell:

The idea of hell is a theme that is first brought about within the epigraph, taken from Dante’s Inferno.  As the poem continues we see the development of the idea of a dull and boring, hell-like world. This theme of hell on earth is also easily relatable to the theme of pessimism. He isn’t living life, he just exists and this stems from his inability to see the world for anything better than his version of hell. Another example of this passivity which steams partially from the theme inadequacy is the allusions he makes to different impressive characters from history and their comparison to him - "I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet."

Ø  Love:

 From just reading the title, the theme of love can be seen – yet it isn’t observed in the manner the reader would expect.  The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is very weakly imbedded in love, Prufrock’s questioning mindset causes him to never act fully upon his feelings of what he things is love, instead attributing them to lust or strong attraction. The most prevalent example of this is when he questions, “Do I dare?” He almost overcomes his fear of rejection and acts upon his infatuation but then as per usual hesitates and denies love its chance to bloom.

Ø  Loneliness:

The contradictions to the theme of love within The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock are the similar themes of loneliness and alienation of which Prufrock brings upon himself. His obsessions and anxieties about the world and the individuals within the world have prevented him from interacting and essentially condemned him to a life of isolation. Although it is not so much his choice, in a way it is because his intolerance of others and himself has led him to expect little and get little in the way of social interactions - “For I have known them already, known them all: /Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons.” Prufrock's refusal to live and instead solely exist only adds to his feelings of isolation, alienation, and loneliness and makes them important as themes for the poem as a whole. 

Ø  Time:

 Time is an important theme within the poem for its negligence to rarely if ever settle in the present. It is constantly flipping between the past and the future, adding the implication that the present isn’t worth noting. There is also the repetition of the stanza “In the room the women come and go/Talking of Michelangelo” which serves the idea of a form of twilight zone. Prufrock has an inability to consciously grasp time as it is repetitive due to each action being meaningless and ignorable. Prufrock also continually references the idea that he is getting old “I grow old... I grow old...,” and the time is running out for him to become accomplished – time is a central worry for Prufrock. He also reflects on the idea that time gives him an ability to change his decisions, “In a minute there is time/ For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”  It is also a feeling of Prufrock’s that there is not a limitless amount of time left for these times of indecision, and if he doesn’t begin to make faster decisions he will end up a lonely old man, sitting alone, waiting for death

                                                Critical Analysis

As one of T. S. Eliot’s earliest and most famous poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is characterized by typical modernism. It reveals the psyche of the “modern man” in predicament represented by Prufrock who is trapped in a dilemma about whether to make a change of his life or not. Making use of various artistic techniques, the poet successfully explores the theme of the spiritual emptiness and frustration of people in modern western society via the protagonist’s melancholic debate with himself.  The art of this poem lies in its modernity, that is, the utilization of stream of consciousness, associations, juxtaposition, figures of speech and metaphors in particular, repetitions, allusions, irony and so on. In the title we find a clear ironic contrast between the romantic suggestions of "love song" and the rather prosaic name "J. Alfred Prufrock". The name comes from Prufrock-Littau, a furniture company which advertised in St. Louis, Missouri 2, where T.S. Eliot was born. The poet combined this name with a fatuous "J. Alfred," which somehow suggests the qualities that this person later shows. There is also irony in the title because it says the poem is a "love song," but then we read something completely different. It is true that there are some elements often used in ballads and songs, such as rhyme, refrain, anaphora, parallelism and incantatory tone; but the poem is not a "love song;" Prufrock never gives utterance to tender or loving feelings in his song. The poet intentionally did this in order to show sarcasm and hint that the main character doesn’t know whom to sing to for his cowardice and incapability of love. “Let us go then, you and I” implies it is the narrator’s mind other than his body that lingers here and there. In light of Freud’s psychological theory, different parts of his psyche aren’t in harmony with each other. His superego is at work in the day while his split egos wander off at night. From the beginning of the poem on, his different selves are so unrestful that they bring readers to occasions everywhere, like the party and the beach, with the flow of his consciousness.

Before we start reading the poem we still encounter another striking ingredient: the epigraph. There is a contrast between the serious epigraph from Dante's Inferno and the lighter Prufrock's love song announced in the title (in fact, the mixture of levity and seriousness is to be found throughout the whole poem). Whereas we had just been told that the poem is a love song of a character called Prufrock, in the epigraph we are given the words of another character, Guido da Montefeltro, a man condemned to hell in a prison of flame for his treacherous advice on earth to Pope Boniface . Guido tells the shame of his wicked life to Dante only because he believes that Dante will never return to earth to report what he says.

　　Silo dredesse che mia reposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’I’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo. (27.61-66)

The structure of the poem is not linear. It’s full of autonomous associations, juxtapositions of fragments and dislocation of time and space, which leads to the difficulty in following Prufrock’s thought. Eliot’s modern concept of time and space focuses on the presentation of one’s mentality characterized by endlessness, randomness and disconnection. The fragmented, overlapped and even reversed time and space in Prufrock’s mind is real and natural despite the fact that his physical body may not move at all within the limited time of his spiritual tour. The disorder and uneasiness of his psychological world revealed throughout his interior monologue is due to his inability to move ahead in his current life. The artistic techniques of this poem are employed to reflect the depression, alienation and helplessness Prufrock feels. The art is arranged for the mood. The mood is created by the art.

The poem’s art and mood are interwoven. Take some fragments of autonomous associations for instance. “When the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table” is a description of the somber view outside the window on the surface yet a vivid reference to Prufrock’s impotence to act like a man who is going to be operated. He is stuck in a state of paralysis without any power. Then dark scenes of the city such as “half-deserted streets”, “cheap hotels” and “sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells” symbolize the ugliness of the society as well as his sadness. Next an imaginative image is made between fog and cat in the fourth stanza. Eliot compares the former to the latter by utilizing various vivid verbs and phrases like “rub”, “lick”, “linger”, “slip”, “made a sudden leap” and “fell asleep”. The personification seems to be unrealistic and absurd whereas it indirectly depicts the chaotic mental state Prufrock cannot get rid of. The metaphor, “I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas” , implies his feeling that he is like a crab which doesn’t move forward and his wish that he could be a crab which doesn’t have such a complex mind.

 Besides imagery, repeated talks with Prufrock himself occur, showing his useless confusion and worry about his aging and the impossibility of asking the “overwhelming question”. The reiteration of “there will be time” and the key word “time” correspond with “a hundred indecisions”. Time not only constitutes a forceful excuse for his hesitation but forms a cause for his anxiety about time’s flying and getting old. He is over sensitive about his appearance. His thin arms and legs, along with “the bald spot” in his hair, make him unsatisfactory to those women whose opinions he cares too much about even though he sometimes dislikes them as is reflected in his depicting the imperfect picture of the “light brown hair” on women’s arms. Something “overwhelming” in his life suppresses him, resulting in his controversial argument with himself: “Do I dare?” “Do I dare disturb the universe?” He has an impulse. Nevertheless, it is extinguished by his cowardice right away repeatedly. Hence, he will probably never utter his “overwhelming question”. It is not merely a longing for women’s love. It means an action against the “normal” accepted by people surrounding him. What is disappointing is that he is too resistant to change to accomplish it.

 His depressed compromise is reflected in references or allusions to famous figures. He imagines his death with panic: “I have seen my head brought in upon a platter”. This is an allusion to John the Baptist in the Bible who was beheaded because of a woman’s words. However, Prufrock, who is afraid that he may be turned down by others including those particular women, is not brave enough to make an attempt to step forward to see “the moment” of his “greatness”, fearing the arrival of “the eternal Footman” once he “forces the moment to its crisis”. Prufrock makes a comparison between Hamlet and himself. Facing a choice that will determine their fate, they both make a monologue. To Hamlet it is the question of “to be or not to be” and to Prufrock it is that of to “squeeze the universe” or not. To be more exact, his most serious problem lies in whether to be decisive or remain indecisive. What’s different between the two is that Prufrock dare not face what might happen if he should run the risk let alone take the responsibility for his own action. Even though he acts, he is too timid to live in the new life. The most probable result is that he will withdraw from it again, both physically and psychologically, struggling with himself among those hypocritical people around him. Therefore, he “wasn’t even meant to be” Hamlet. He’d rather be “an attendant lord” who is carefully obedient to his master than the noble yet painful prince. The role he prefers takes pleasure in giving advice instead of making important decisions. What’s worse, as his dramatic monologue progresses, he’d even choose to be “the Fool” who seems insignificant in this immense “universe”.

 The mood full of desolation and frustration is closely linked with Prufrock’s fear for others’ rejection. He imagines himself to be Lazarus who never returned “from the dead” to tell people about the hell. When Prufrock is together with an imaginary woman, he wishes to speak out his true feelings but stops suddenly on a second thought. He frightens himself by neurotically reminding his alter ego of her possible answer again and again. “That’s not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all.” Thus, swallowing his unfulfilled desire for what he might have proposed, he is still “pinned” on the same spot like an insect on the wall as is mentioned in the earlier part of the poem. With his self-esteem reduced to extreme, he is too weak to join the young people swimming energetically in the sea, let alone become the man whom mermaids sing beautiful songs to. Strangely, he longs for real happiness yet worry too much about his destiny; he is dissatisfied with his boring life yet keeps persuading himself not to go ahead. He can only resort to fantasies like “the chambers of the sea” with a vain hope that he would never wake up to reality. As if he was as inferior as a clown, he believes he is performing alone stupidly and helplessly in the center of a boundless stage. Gradually, he has isolated himself in an environment filled with isolation.

 Prufrock’s pathetic feeling of futility is deep rooted in the mentality of people in modern society. The women “come and go talking of Michelangelo”. They appear to be noble, graceful and well-bred while they are short of real accomplishments. Michelangelo is the symbol of the essence of art of which their understanding is actually shallow. They pretend to be interested in art and talk about it now and then whereas that is merely because they need to idle in a decent way so as to cover their superficialness. Having seen through such people, Prufrock speaks to himself: “I have known them all, known them all-” Not only can this phenomenon be found in women who are typical examples but also it possesses universality in the whole middle class. Prufrock, as a member of them, has been leading such a life as well. Having realized the emptiness and meaninglessness of his own way of living, he cannot help sighing with emotion: “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.” “Toast and tea”, “novels” and “teacups” are all words indicating the content of his life. Then a series of questions go forward one by one: “How should I presume?” “Should I then presume?” “How should I begin?”  “Would it have been worth it at all?” With the proposal of these questions, his despair, together with his hesitation, increases by degrees. He lingers in his dreamland full of love and sincerity but he deems it too beautiful to be true.
 Prufrock’s fear for love reflects modern man’s inability to handle human relationships. He dares not to “descend the stair” to face those who will probably look down upon him due to his old appearance. How can such an aging and ugly-looking man have a right to crave for love and spiritual warmth? He may ask himself again. He would rather experience solitariness than see “his lover” settle “a pillow by her head” beside him in bed and utter her relentless words of refusal. Whatever he does, he will never meet others’ expectations. His mindset is typical of modern men’s thinking towards relationships between each other. It is not restricted in the aspect of love. Love is representative of human emotions here. With the development of industry and economy, more and more people become indifferent and detached, detaching one another and meanwhile detached by each other. Eventually, they are incapable of expressing and communicating their ideas much less making themselves understood. Sometimes they won’t even try to understand others.

 Prufrock’s rooted insecurity is a result of the social environment as well as his being a neurotic. Prufrock is victimized. The characteristics of the society have an invisible influence on him and he is greatly affected. Thus, he turns out to be an epitome of his society. In the end of the poem, “human voices wake us, and we drown.” His split egos disappear and he goes back to “normal” again. He puts on his persona and continues with his boring life. He doesn’t realize anything at last and his monologue proves to be nothingness. If what is special about those “noble” women has universality as is mentioned above, Prufrock’s dilemma and failure are also common in modern times.

 In brief, the modern man, Prufrock’s predicament, his pursuit, pain and dissatisfaction end up in frustration. He has no choice but give up in his relentless struggle among his egos. His wish to live a meaningful life turns out to be a vision. He is deprived of happiness and finally overwhelmed by himself whose weaknesses are not only part of his character but also formed in the alienation of the spiritually and culturally decaying western world. Though the poem was composed in 1917, its art which creates a confused, depressed, anxious and desperate mood via modernist techniques and its theme of impotent human beings in an empty and emotionless society still have significance today.