More handpicked essays just for you.
The lovesong of j. alfred prufrock
The lovesong of j. alfred prufrock essay
The lovesong of j. alfred prufrock
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot, is the story of the life of a man. It tells of a man reminiscing over his life, regretting decisions that he made. Of a man who is thinking back on his life, and toward the end, it is told how the man is closely approaching death. He wants to be able to escape it, but alas, cannot, and, in the end, he dies. In The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot expresses a sense of regret using literary devices, such as imagery, metaphors, and allusion. While among other literary devices used in this poem, imagery creates the biggest impact due to the fact that it is the most prevalent literary device in this poem. Imagery uses words and/or phrases that appeal to the senses to create a mind-blowing …show more content…
A metaphor, depending on its construction, can pack a powerful punch. Metaphors use comparison, but are not the same thing as similes. Metaphors make comparisons by saying that one thing is another, and by doing so, having a different meaning than what is said. An example of this comes from the poem, from lines 85 and 86, “And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid.” The eternal footman is a metaphor for death. By saying he has seen the eternal Footman hold his coat, and snicker, he is saying that he is close to death, he knows that it is close to his time to go and he knows that death is waiting on him. By saying he is afraid, he means he is afraid to die. Another example of a metaphor from lines 124 and 125 is, “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.” By saying this, the speaker is saying that he has heard the mermaids singing, heard them singing to each other, calling each other home. By saying that he does not think they will sing to him, does not think that they will call him home, tell him it is his time to die. Another example of metaphor,coming from lines 129, 130, and 131 is,“We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Til human voices wake us, and we drown.” He is saying that he has spent too much time lingering on death, he had lost all track of time. He does not know what is going on, he is confused, he has let his fear of death take over his life. By the time he realizes he has let his life pass him by, by the time he wakes up, it is too late. He drowns in his sorrow, and dies. This could be the meaning. It could be because it sounds like there is supposed to be more, like the poem is supposed to continue, but it doesn’t. It just stops. “Til human voices wake us, and we drown.” is
There are multiple examples of visual imagery in this poem. An example of a simile is “curled like a possum within the hollow trunk”. The effect this has is the way it creates an image for the reader to see how the man is sleeping. An example of personification is, “yet both belonged to the bush, and now are one”. The result this has is how it creates an emotion for the reader to feel
In the poem, “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”, the author, T.S. Eliot, uses diction and tone to give the poem life, and to make the character seem as anything but mere fiction. Eliot’s use of diction shows that you should not put things off until later in life because in a flash, you may be nearing the end of your journey of life and lose all opportunity to make yourself happy with the decisions you’ve made over the years. . “ In a minute there is time/for decision and revisions/ which/ in a minute/will reverse” (line 47, 48).
Imagery is defined as language that appeals to one or more of the senses. It allows the writer to convey a deeper message while entertaining the reader at the same time. Often it is used to help the readers connect what the edification is to their own real life experiences. Imagery can be used to intrigue sight, smell, feel, taste, or hearing. Writing is considered not well written without imagery because people enjoy the feeling of a personal connection with the story. The Authors that are featured in Prentice Hall Literature Poetry Collection 4 do an exceptional job of involving imagery in their writings.
The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a poem that was written by T. S Eliot. The poem introduces the character, Prufrock, as a man who is very pessimistic about everything and is incapable of change. Prufrock sees the society he lives in as a place that is full of people who think alike, and he thinks he is different from them. Though Prufrock, realizes that the society he is associated with needs a change and have more people who think differently, but the fact that he is very concerned about what people would think of him if he tries to speak up to make a change or that he would be ignored or be misunderstood for whatever he says hindered him from expressing himself the way he would like to. Prufrock then decides not to express himself in order to avoid any type of rejection. In the poem, Prufrock made use of several imagery and metaphor to illustrate how he feels about himself and the society he is involved in. Prufrock use of imageries and
American-born writer T.S. Eliot became famous in 1922 for his poem The Waste Land. The poem was highly regarded for its “poignant expressions of the alienation and despair” of the time (224). Eliot is viewed as a master of portraying “stagnation and estrangement” (225). In his early masterpiece “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” composed around 1911, Eliot “addresses a middle-aged man’s anxiety over the passing of time and his own aging” while pondering the meaning of human existence (Longman Anthology 225). The main character of Prufrock is critical of his own society and focuses on the passage of time in his own life. Prufrock examines the passage of time in lines 23-34, in a way that is similar to Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:
T.S. Eliot’s breakthrough poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is expertly crafted to have a complex structure with various hidden themes. The poem acts as an inner monologue for the titular character, appearing as lyric-narrative poetry. However, it does appear to lean towards a lyric poem, with the hazy plot consisting of Prufrock describing what his life has been like, in retrospect to speculating on what is to come next. The monologue throughout is melancholy in nature, with Prufrock dwelling on issues such as unrequited love, his frail body, his looming demise, and a dissatisfaction with the modernist world. Eliot uses a variety of metaphor within the poem to showcase Prufrock’s indecision, between being unable to fully live, while
T.S. Eliot’s poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock has a plethora of possible interpretations. Many people argue that the poem represents a man who appears to be very introverted person who is contemplating a major decision in his life. This decision is whether or not he will consummate a relationship with someone he appears to have an attraction to or feelings for. People also debate whether or not Prufrock from the poem is typical of people today. While there are a plethora of reasons Prufrock is not typical of people today the main three reasons are he is very reserved, he overthinks most situations and he tries avoid his problems instead of solve them.
The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock, a poem created by the late T.S. Eliot was a poet in the 20th Century (when Europe was at its peak of industrialisation) and this is considered to be one of his highly regarded pieces alongside The Wasteland. This poem is a monologue of the persona of J. Alfred Prufrock, (the speaker of the poem) a middle aged man, intellectual and described with little self-confidence with himself who has problems in dealing with self-image and anxiety. He’s a solitary man who is achingly shy and has little courage, when isolated, he isn’t subjected to a social lifestyle and this halts him when it comes to speaking with a female. The title to me is ironic, Eliot titled it a ‘Lovesong’, therefore, the language used in the poem cements a theme of pessimism, as hardly anything is written on love.
T.S. Eliot, a notable twentieth century poet, wrote often about the modern man and his incapacity to make decisive movements. In his work entitled, 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'; he continues this theme allowing the reader to view the world as he sees it, a world of isolation and fear strangling the will of the modern man. The poem opens with a quoted passage from Dante's Inferno, an allusion to Dante's character who speaks from Hell only because he believes that the listener can not return to earth and thereby is impotent to act on the knowledge of his conversation. In his work, Eliot uses this quotation to foreshadow the idea that his character, Prufrock, is also trapped in a world he can not escape, the world where his own thoughts and feelings incapacitate and isolate him.
In the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” T.S Eliot uses a man named Prufrock to describe the uncertainties in life and how they affect a person views. Prufrock does not have the confidence to give or receive love. There is an equally amount of unhappiness to the concept of time and space. He is unsatisfied with life and with the decisions to think rather than act. He claims that there will be much time to do things in the social world. Prufrock is more of an anti-hero that is controlled by fear. T.S Eliot uses tone, allusions, and imagery to explain a man’s inability to make decisions and his own self confidence in life in which he is afraid of the outlook of his future by being misunderstood.
S. Eliot’s poem for the American Literature class, Pagnattaro’s critical essay allowed me to further understanding the meaning of his text. The details of his ongoing and growing anxiety, and insecurity were portrayed more prominently in the story after I have read Pagnattaro’s overview of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” text. Her text allowed me to further understand why Prufrock refrained himself from asking the woman he noticed to pursue him. Although his intentions are to pursue her, his doubts and questions against himself overwhelmed him. This resulting in him not being able to move forward towards a good future for himself. These details show how “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is not what one might have thought was a mainstream love poem, or something as close to “Romeo and Juliet” by
In T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the author is establishing the trouble the main character, Prufrock, is having coming to terms with middle age. He is deeply distressed over the fact that he is growing old, and feels that the prime of his life has passed him by. His preoccupation with time throughout the poem characterizes his fear of aging. He is a man experiencing a mid-life crisis, brought about by his perception of aging and his own feelings of inadequacy.
T.S. Eliot is often considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th Century. Not only were his highly regarded poems such as “The Wasteland” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” influential to the literary style of his time, but his work as a publisher highlighted the work of many talented poets. Analyzing his poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” with psychoanalytic criticism reveals several core issues in the speaker of the poem, and may reflect Eliot himself.
One of T.S. Eliot’s earliest poems, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, is a prime example of a text that takes a turn inwards in terms of conveying the experience it presents. The poem provides a look into the distressed mind of an archetypal modern man of the times. It does this using the speaker’s stream of consciousness presented as a dramatic monologue. Prufrock, the poem’s speaker, seeks to advance his relationship with a woman who has caught his eye. He wonders if he has “the strength to force the moment to its crisis” (Eliot, 80). Prufrock is so entrenched in self-doubt that he is uncertain whether he is capable of having a relationship with this woman. His knowledge of the world he lives in and his circumstances keep him from attempting to approach this prospective lover. He contemplates the reasons for which he believes he cannot be with her and scolds himself for even thinking that it was possibl...
T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" reveals the unvoiced inner thoughts of a disillusioned, lonely, insecure, and self-loathing middle-aged man. The thoughts are presented in a free association, or stream of consciousness style, creating images from which the reader can gain insight into Mr. Prufrock's character. Mr. Prufrock is disillusioned and disassociated with society, yet he is filled with longing for love, comfort, and companionship. He is self-conscious and fearful of his image as viewed through the world's eye, a perspective from which he develops his own feelings of insignificance and disgust. T. S. Eliot uses very specific imagery to build a portrait of Mr. Prufrock, believing that mental images provide insight where words fail.