NAZ TUZGER

11-A/151

LOVE SONG BY J. ALFRED PRUFROCK

For as long as I could remember, I thought poetry as something the

teachers made us memorize to commend heroes or that it was
some analogous sounds that depicted tulips or roses. Everything
about poetry seemed very distant, sterile almost. Until the day I
came across a stanza from a poem of T.S Elliot that contemplated
asking an overwhelming question about the universe. Then after
telling me not to ask what the question was, the lines summoned
me to join them to make a visit since the question wasnt going
anywhere. Puzzling isnt it? Just tell it to me, I thought but I also
knew/learnt that day, that poetry did not work that way. Love Song
by J. Alfred Prufrock is a poem that takes the reader through the
sterile but insidious city streets down to the chambers of a sea, all
through which telling the tale of Alfred Prufrocks life.
The speaker of the poem is J. Alfred Prufrock who is very much
bored with his life and wishes to become someone or rather
something else. He doesnt like the crowds around him and is quite
nervous. By saying Ive known them all already, known them all
and repeating phrases similar to this the reader sees how stuck this
poor man feels. His life is filled with tea parties and social anxiety.
Elliot shows this brilliantly by never actually speaking of a human
figure but using only fragments of people such as the arms that lie
along a table, wrap around a shawl, or the eyes that fix you in a
formulated phase so that, one can picture the piccasso-esque
creatures that Prufrock wants to get away from. But if he is stuck
why doesnt he do something to change his life? Thats the tragic
part about Prufrock: he never can, he only thinks about it; he is the
paralyzed force Elliot mentions in another one of his poems. He is
the portrait of humanity that survived two world wars-which is the
time this poem was written in-, the modern, 20th centurys man who
is just too afraid. So he defers everything and often repeats the
phrase There will be time and says In a minute there is time for
decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse after which the
reader can see how severe the situation is. In a minute he has the
courage to take a stand but the next minute deflates him like a silly
balloon.

Remember the overwhelming question that drew me in? Well

Prufrocks life passes by without him ever asking the question but
thinking constantly about it. He thinks Do I dare? and then Do I
dare disturb the universe? as if his asking a question (which
perhaps may be a marriage proposal since the poem is called Love
Song by J. A. Prufrock) can tilt the universe on its axis He quite
often says How should I begin? or How should I presume? or
Should I then begin? These are a lot of questions for a guy who
cant ask the question he intends to. He has seen the eternal
footman hold his (my) coat and snicker and in short he (I) was
afraid which brings me back to my paralyzed man after two world
wars theory because he has seen too much. Poor Prufrock thinks if it
wouldve been worth it to ask this question; he has passed thinking
about asking it; he is thinking, Would it have been worth it after
all? The tone is so timorous, depressed and isolated that one cant
help but feel how human this guy is and how much he has known
pain to even take a step forward. And in the end he grows too old to
ask his question. He misses his shot and now his questions become
quite simple like Do I dare to eat a peach?. He still cant take
action and has to ask himself if he should dare before even doing
something insanely mundane.
The poem contains a lot of underwater imagery, which endorses
how much Prufrock wants to escape his reality. His dream is to
become a creature of the seas. He says, I shouldve been a pair of
ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas. The sea and
the sea creatures symbolize Prufrocks wish to change his life. And in
the end after he gets old he dreams about mermaids combing the
white hair of the waves, as if the sea has grown old with him.
Moreover, The underwater imagery gives the poem a beautiful slow
motion quality, which corresponds with Prufrocks inability to take
action since it is really hard to talk or move underwater also. And
pitifully he feels so inconsequential as he did when he said No Im
not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be that he thinks, Ive heard
mermaids singing each to each/I dont think that theyll sing to me.
Even his escape from reality, his mermaids dont want to sing to
him. How can the reader not feel sorry for this person? Prufrocks
last lines are
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea girls wreathed with seaweed red and

brown
Till human voices wake us and we drown
The people around him, the social anxiety hence reality is so
oppressive that he feels like drowning when he is summoned back
and wants to remain underwater (which is ironic since thats how
one actually drowns) and stay peaceful with his mermaids.
The poem is written in the form of a dramatic monologue in which a
fictional character addresses his audience. There is no uniform form
or meter in this poem but Elliot experiments with a variety of them.
He uses couplets like In the rooms women come and go/ Talking of
Michelangelo and the rhymes has song-like rhythms to show that
the poem isnt in free verse. This is one of the things that drew me
in also, the poem is quite sonorous. Like in the last two stanzas
written in the previous paragraph brown and drown are very
simple rhymes that draw in the most oblivious reader in. The meterwhen present- is in the form of iambic pentameter, which is the
closest rhythm to colloquial speaking such as when he says I
shouldve been a pair of ragged claws. The use of alliteration also
gives the poem a sing-song quality like in When the wind blows the
water white and black.
In conclusion, Love Song by J. Alfred Prufrock is a poem that can
easily be set apart from the rest. Prufrock, admits to not being a
hero. He is stuck and terrified to take action because of the
potential consequences. He is so human that it breaks our heart. In
the end the poem is actually about a bald guy with social anxiety
that we might dismiss in our everyday lives, but T.S Elliot writes him
in such a way that the reader can find herself in him and perhaps
learn from his mistakes. Thanks to Prufrock I dont ever want to find
myself asking Would it have been worth it after all?. Ever.