Literary Devices In The Love Song Of J Alfred Prufrock

“When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you - a tree, house, a field....Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives your own naive impression of the scene before you.” – Claude Monet (AZ Quotes).

A moment doesn’t last long. A moment is an expression of just a few seconds. How does one capture something in the moment? If a moment only last a few seconds to a minute, how can one accurately capture what they are seeing, hearing, or trying to convey? Like Monet said, one must forget what they know about the subject and look at it through different lenses. To capture something exactly as

Eliot is another example of capturing the moment in his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. Eliot didn’t completely shy away from rhyming and structure like the other modernist poets of his time and he also used flowery language. This poem uses many similes and metaphors to explain what is going on. For example, he says, “the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table,” (Canvas). That use of a simile creates a much more vivid picture than saying the sky was dark and dreary. Throughout this entire poem, Eliot uses many things to describe exactly what he is talking about. In colloquial terms, this poem would be much less descriptive. Although most metaphors are left up to the reader’s interpretation, Eliot used metaphors to paint the exact picture he wants. According to the background of the reader, they will interpret the information differently. One’s experience with the cold is different for someone living in St. George as it would be for someone living in Chicago. If the writer was to just say that it was cold outside the reader from St. George could take that as meaning it was 60 degrees outside. Even if the writer were to report exactly what temperature it was, that doesn’t paint the same picture as saying something like every breath felt like icicles stabbing the back of your throat. Despite one’s background they can imagine what that would feel like. To ensure all his readers had similar experiences with this poem, Eliot doesn’t use simple terms. Eliot captures J. Alfred Prufrock in such despair and internal struggle so well. Eliot takes us through what the surrounding is like, what is going through Prufrock’s head, and what ultimately ends up happening. Eliot describes the moment so well that it feels as though the reader is there at the party, maybe even as