The way that the city is encountered at night can be compared with to how it is encountered at day in the poems ‘Prelude’ and ‘Morning at the Window’. The city is described similarly to each other. In ‘Preludes’ the streets in the morning as are described as “sawdust-trampled” (II, line 16) which is reminiscent of the description of the “sawdust restaurants” (line 7) in ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’. The “waves of brown fog” (line 5) in ‘Morning at the Window’ parallels the “yellow fog” (line 15) in ‘Prufrock’. An eerie tone of ‘Morning at the Window’ is created through the repetition of ethereal language throughout the poem. The fog tossing up faces from the street gives an impression of ghosts or spirits. The use of the word “twisted” …show more content…
Judith Myers Hoover interprets part of Prufrock’s indecision and self-consciousness to being related to whether he should go to a brothel (pg. 16) and while this could be debatable insinuations of prostitution partially more overt in ‘Rhapsody of a Windy Night’ whereby a woman, also out at night, enters into a building. The woman’s dress is described as “torn and stained” (line 20) and so we can deduce that she most likely comes from poverty. We can also question why a woman would be out at night by herself. This is something that we would find stranger than we would Prufrock being out at night by himself in virtue of the fact that women have more dangers to think of when it concerns their safety at night. And so for this poor women to be outside by herself there must be a particular reason. Furthermore the door is described as “open[ing] on her like a grin” (line 18) and the idea of the door grinning is quite ominous and so we would not associate the building going into as positive. It would not be absurd to consider this woman as a prostitute and for the building that she is entering wither being a brothel or a client’s house. And so both ‘Prufrock’ and ‘Rhapsody of a Windy Night’ gives implicit suggestions of prostitution, and these are the only mentions of any kind of relationship that occurs in either of these poems. Hoover describe the relationship with a prostitute as “the city-wise substitute for true love and commitment” (pg. 16) and as it still only speculative whether either poems are portraying prostitution even then there may not be any relationships at all even meaningless, fake
The author illustrates the “dim, rundown apartment complex,” she walks in, hand and hand with her girlfriend. Using the terms “dim,” and “rundown” portrays the apartment complex as an unsafe, unclean environment; such an environment augments the violence the author anticipates. Continuing to develop a perilous backdrop for the narrative, the author describes the night sky “as the perfect glow that surrounded [them] moments before faded into dark blues and blacks, silently watching.” Descriptions of the dark, watching sky expand upon the eerie setting of the apartment complex by using personification to give the sky a looming, ominous quality. Such a foreboding sky, as well as the dingy apartment complex portrayed by the author, amplify the narrator’s fear of violence due to her sexuality and drive her terror throughout the climax of the
The timeline carries on chronologically, the intense imagery exaggerated to allow the poem to mimic childlike mannerisms. This, subjectively, lets the reader experience the adventure through the young speaker’s eyes. The personification of “sunset”, (5) “shutters”, (8) “shadows”, (19) and “lamplights” (10) makes the world appear alive and allows nothing to be a passing detail, very akin to a child’s imagination. The sunset, alive as it may seem, ordinarily depicts a euphemism for death, similar to the image of the “shutters closing like the eyelids”
Foulcher’s Summer Rain represents a juxtaposed view of suburbia towards the natural environment throughout his poem, as he explains societies daily repetitive tasks. This idea is expressed through Foulcher’s use of simile, in the stanza “steam rising from ovens and showers like mist across a swampland.” This simile makes the comparison between average tasks completed in the urban world, such as cooking or showering to a natural situation such as a swampland, creating a feeling of bother and discomfort for the readers, as swamplands are generally humid, insect ridden and muddy. This effectively makes the readers feel this way, not of the swamplands that are compared, but of the tasks in the home that are conveyed. Similarly, Foulcher uses simile in “clutter on the highway like abacus beads. No one dares overtake,” to illustrate the lack of free will in society as abacus beads are on a set path, there is no freedom or individuality. This demonstrates how where everything is busy and cramped, there is no room in society to notice the small simplistic divinities in the natural world around them. The complexity and mundanity of society causes the simplistic beauties of nature to be
The speaker begins the poem an ethereal tone masking the violent nature of her subject matter. The poem is set in the Elysian Fields, a paradise where the souls of the heroic and virtuous were sent (cite). Through her use of the words “dreamed”, “sweet women”, “blossoms” and
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is about a timid and downcast man in search of meaning, of love, and in search of something to break from the dullness and superficiality which he feels his life to be. Eliot lets us into Prufrock's world for an evening, and traces his progression of emotion from timidity, and, ultimately, to despair of life. He searches for meaning and acceptance by the love of a woman, but falls miserably because of his lack of self-assurance. Prufrock is a man for whom, it seems, everything goes wrong, and for whom there are no happy allowances. The emptiness and shallowness of Prufrock's "universe" and of Prufrock himself are evident from the very beginning of the poem. He cannot find it in himself to tell the woman what he really feels, and when he tries to tell her, it comes out in a mess. At the end of the poem, he realizes that he has no big role in life.
“I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair. Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.
...emonstrative of Prufrock’s longing for the women; even though he is on the inside with them, he still lingers hesitantly like the fog. This is later reinforced by Prufrock stating that he has “gone at dusk…and watched the smoke that rises from the pipes / Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows” (ll.70-73). Both Prufrock and Samsa long for things they cannot have, because they are afraid to take a chance.
T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” tells the speaker’s story through several literary devices, allowing the reader to analyze the poem through symbolism, character qualities, and allusions that the work displays. In this way, the reader clearly sees the hopelessness and apathy that the speaker has towards his future. John Steven Childs sums it up well in saying Prufrock’s “chronic indecision blocks him from some important action” (Childs). Each literary device- symbolism, character, and allusion- supports this description. Ultimately, the premise of the poem is Prufrock second guessing himself to no end over talking to a woman, but this issue represents all forms of insecurity and inactivity.
Firstly, the narrator gives little detail throughout the whole story. The greatest amount of detail is given in the first paragraph where the narrator describes the weather. This description sets the tone and mood of the events that follow. Giving the impression that a cold, wet, miserable evening was in
The first half of the poem creates a sense of place. The narrator invites us to go “through certain half-deserted streets” on an evening he has just compared to an unconscious patient (4). To think of an evening as a corpselike event is disturbing, but effective in that the daytime is the time of the living, and the night time is the time of the dead. He is anxious and apprehensive, and evokes a sense of debauchery and shadows. Lines 15-22 compare the night’s fog to the actions of a typical cat, making the reader sense the mystery of a dark, foggy night in a familiar, tangible way. One might suppose that “In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo” refers to a room in a brothel, where the seedy women for hire talk about elevated art between Johns (13). The narrator creates a tension in the image of dark deserted streets and shady activities in the dark.
“Its deserted streets are a potent symbol of man and nature 's indifference to the individual. The insistence of the narrator on his own self-identity is in part an act of defiance against a constructed, industrial world that has no place for him in its order” (Bolton). As the poem continues on, the narrator becomes aware of his own consciousness as he comes faces nature and society during his walk. He embraces nature with the rain, dark and moon but he also reinforces his alienation from society as he ignores the watchman and receives no hope of cries for him. The societal ignorance enforces our belief that he is lonely on this gloomy night. “When he passes a night watchman, another walker in the city with whom the speaker might presumably have some bond, he confesses, ‘I… dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.’ Likewise, when he hears a voice in the distance, he stops in his tracks--only to realize that the voice is not meant "to call me back or say goodbye" (Bolton). The two times he had a chance to interact with the community, either he showed no interest in speaking or the cry wasn’t meant for him. These two interactions emphasize his loneliness with the
In the first half of “Ghost House”, word choice is used to create a somber, unsettling tone. Even innocent words take on a bleak undertone. Phrases such as “daylight falls” exemplify this with the anxiousness that is evoked with the word “falls.” Even the word “copse” begins to sound like “corpse.” This word play is important in solidifying a foreboding mood.
A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, by Eugene O’Neill, is a deeply autobiographical play. His life was rampant with confusion and addictions in his family. Each character in this play has a profound resemblance, and draws parallels and connections with a member of his own family. The long journey that the title of the play refers to is a journey into his past. Fog is a recurring metaphor in the play; it is a physical presence even before it becomes a crucial symbol of the family’s impenetrable confusion. It is referred to in the text as well as stage directions in this play. It sets the mood for the play in all its somber hues.
In this poem, Mary Robinson writes about the hustle and bustle of a street in London. Robinson fills her poem with noisy communication, and she captivates her audience by showing the city in all that it has offer. She engages our senses with implacable street sounds, which is why this particular quote was chosen. The very first line of the poem gives you an idea of what to expect the poem to be like. She describes several different sounds she wakes up to every morning, and uses auditory imagery to identify the occupation of specific people in this busy street.
In this passage, it's clear that Prufrock desires a woman's attention but doesn't think he will ever have it. This pessimistic outlook gives no hope at all and is just depressing.