By Jacqueline Schaalje
Ana Paula Vargas Maia
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a magnificent poem I’ve read many times and yet it never bores me. In my opinion, you can read this poem every few years and not only find some new things in it, but read it as if it’s completely fresh.
Here is the link to the poem. You can also listen to a reading of it.
Some Background
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is one of the first modernist poems. It doesn’t have a regular rhyme scheme or fixed form. Another thing that is new or “modern” in this poem is that there aren’t any explanations of what’s happening. We read about a number of situations, or scenes, and what the purpose is of those we must find out for ourselves. And a last modern thing is that some lines are very informal, like conversation. Poetry from earlier periods, such as the classical and romantic periods, is usually more formal.
Its poet, T.S. Eliot, wrote it in 1910. Eliot was an American writer, educated at Harvard University, who settled in London. His most famous work is the epic poem “The Waste Land.”
Funny Title
First of all, the poem’s title is a joke. Love Song sounds romantic, doesn’t it? But does the name J. Alfred Prufrock do too? Not really. Sounds more like the name of a clerk or a pharmacist. And as you’ll find out, Mr Prufrock is a really dull type.
Dante’s Inferno
At the top of the poem you will first find six lines taken from Dante from the Divine Comedy. In this passage, a sinner [= someone who did something bad] tells the poet, who is travelling to Hell and back, that he will tell the truth about how he got into hell. He doesn’t know that the poet is just visiting Hell and he will tell his story when he returns to Earth.
More about the epigraph here in this easy explanation.
The poem
Summary
It’s about a man, J. Alfred Prufrock, who is getting older and who isn’t satisfied with his life so far, but he’s unable to do something about it. And he’s been unable to do something about his life for the xx years that he’s lived because he doesn’t dare. We follow him in his round in the city, going to cocktail parties with beautiful women. But Prufrock doesn’t make a move. He’s afraid, perhaps of failure. Yet he’s painfully aware that he’s missed something, and that there is a better life somewhere. The poem’s conclusion is sad: Prufrock has heard the mermaids* singing, but he doesn’t think they will sing to him.
*Mermaids are those creatures who are half fish and half human, and who can sing beautifully.
Line by line discussion
Let us go then, you and I,
The poet is talking to us. He takes us on a trip, similar to the trip that Dante makes led by another poet, Virgil. Well, let’s see whether J. Alfred Prufrock will give us the exciting round of Hell and Heaven that Dante gets in his epic poem. Don’t put your hopes up too high!
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
The opening is one of the most famous images in English literature. The night lies unconscious; it is etherized. In the past, patients were sedated [= made unconscious] by sniffing ether.
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
Deserted means people have left.
The muttering retreats
Retreat = leaving your daily activities, for instance go to a hotel or go into your study to be alone and think. But retreat can also mean pulling back from something unpleasant. The two meanings introduces the theme of the poem, which is of a man who has retreated from life.
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Sawdust = the little pieces of wood. In the past you could find that stuff on the floor of pubs.
Oysters are a flat, expensive shellfish.
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Tedious = tiring, something that goes on and on. And an argument is a discussion about a statement that can be right or wrong.
Of insidious intent
This refers to the argument which in this case is of “insidious intent.” Insidious means secretly dangerous, and intent = purpose.
To lead you to an overwhelming question …
The argument brings you [= the reader] to the following question that is overwhelming = you can’t get it out of your head.
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Well, the poet is not going to tell you what the question is.
Let us go and make our visit.
He invites you to make a visit, just like in the Divine Comedy, where Dante is taken to see Hell by the poet Virgil. So let’s prepare for our visit to Hell. Have you got your gasmask on?
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
Okay, so now we expected to be in Hell, right? But instead we’re in a room full of women who must be very cultured, because they talk about Michelangelo, you know, the Italian artist and engineer who painted the Last Judgement and the Creation of Adam. If I’ll show you this picture, you’ll probably nod.
So, in short we are in a room with women talking, and they’re discussing very high subjects, one of which might be God and the creation, Renaissance art and making airplanes. Does this sound like Hell to you? To me, personally, it sounds more like Heaven. But let’s read on, we are curious to know why J. Alfred Prufrock thinks this is Hell.
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
Yeah, outside the weather isn’t so nice. There is a yellow fog that sits right on the windows.
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Muzzle = snout, the nose and mouth of an animal.
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
The yellow smoke is personified. In the poet’s image, it is a monster.
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
The yellow fog lingers = stays a bit longer, in still-standing water.
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Soot = the black dirt that you can find in a chimney = the opening leading smoke out from a house.
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
It [the smoke] slides next to the terrace = a platform next to the house where you can sit outside, and then it leaps = jumps.
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Hm, again, nothing dramatic happens. The fog doesn’t jump because it wants to attack.
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
No, it wrapped itself around the house, and then it sleeps! What an anti-drama.
And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
Apparently, Mr Prufrock needs to prepare a face for the people that he will meet.
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
Indecision = not deciding about something.
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
A revision is a correction.
Before the taking of a toast and tea.
This stanza explains in words that aren’t difficult to understand that Mr Prufrock is taking his time. He thinks there is time enough to do big important things: “There will be time to murder and create.” But in reality he’s not doing anything besides eating toast and tea.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Mr Prufrock spends his time thinking of his overwhelming question. I think this might be the question that the poet was referring to earlier on, which is: “Do I dare?” Prufrock wants to take some big step, but he’s asking himself whether he has the courage. Well, that is funny, because he doesn’t even have the courage to ask his question!
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —
Bald = no hair.
[They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”]
Prufrock is always aware of the impression he makes.
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
The collar [= the part around your neck] mounts [= goes up] to his chin. Prufrock is sensibly dressed, we understand from his description, like a well-groomed gentleman.
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —
Assert = express.
[They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”]
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
From this last line we gather that Prufrock isn’t able to make decisions because “a minute will reverse” them. This can mean several things. It can mean that time can change the decisions you’ve made. It can also mean that Prufrock is simply unable to make decisions, because he wants to change them a minute later. Or it can mean that he thinks that making decisions is senseless, because reality will change one minute later.
dedl
For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
Prufrock knows “everything.” He’s measured out his life with coffee spoons. What does this image mean? It could mean his life is one string of cups of coffee, with nothing interesting happening in between.
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
A dying fall = a sound that slows down, or becomes lower in tone. This phrase can also be found in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night, in which the male character, Count Orsino, is listening to music that reminds him of his lover. But Prufrock is just listening to voices, presumably of the women who are talking about Michelangelo. And he’s not taking part in the discussion.
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?
What’s more, Prufrock “knows” the voices already, and the people they belong to, and he doesn’t want to presume = he doesn’t want to believe that anyone is interested in him.
And I have known the eyes already, known them all—
Yeah yeah, we know, Prufrock is just thinking of excuses not to look for contact with other people. Now he’s afraid of other people’s eyes.
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
They eyes that fix you [= stare at you] in a formulated phrase = a set sentence.
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
Prufrock says: When people judge me, and they’ve put me on a pin = put me in a category
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Pinned and wriggling on a wall = like a butterfly or other insect that is caught and put on display inside a box, and it is still fighting with its last strength [wriggling = making small movements with your body].
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
A butt can be the end of anything, and butt-end is often used to mean the stub of a cigarette. So Prufrock is comparing his life to a used-up cigarette.
And how should I presume?
And I have known the arms already, known them all—
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
Braceleted = wearing a bracelet, the piece of jewellery around your arm.
[But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!]
Down on your arm = soft hairs covering your arm [down are the soft baby feathers of a bird].
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Digress = lose the point.
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
A shawl is another word for scarf.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?
Seems that Prufrock is interested in at least one of the women, but he doesn’t dare speak to them.
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
Dusk = sundown.
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? …
From this stanza we understand that Prufrock is an expert at lonely walks through the city, and he discovers there are plenty of other lonely men around.
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
Here’s another reference to Shakespeare, this time to Hamlet’s line when he says Polonius, whom he hates, is an old man walking backwards like a crab. Hamlet is mentioned later in the poem. In this image, Prufrock is comparing himself to a crab [could also be a lobster, but in English you can call an old man an old crab, so crab is a better image]. You could make some interesting comparisons between them: Prufrock is protective and defensive of himself, just like a crab is in his shell and with his sharp claws. He’s slow like a crab. And although the crab lives under the sea, Prufrock lives in his own world too. The crab’s claws are a nice contrast with the elegant braceleted arms of the women in the room. Crab’s claws are also aggressive, and reading between the lines Prufrock does sound aggressive, angry and frustrated.
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Smoothen = make flat
Asleep … tired … or it malingers,
Malinger = avoid a duty
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
You and me: Here’s a reminder that we are still with the poet on the tour of his uninteresting life.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
To force the moment to its crisis = undertake an important action.
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
To weep = to cry. Fast = not eat.
Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter,
Prufrock seeing his head brought in on a platter [= dish] is a reference to the Bible story about John the Baptist who was murdered when the King’s daughter asked him for John’s head. His head was then brought into the room on a plate. The meaning of this line surely is that Prufrock foresees that he will die soon. Perhaps he envisions his head on a plate because he’s all the time at those cocktail parties, and he feels that no one loves him.
I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
No great matter means it’s not important.
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
Flicker = be unstable of a light burning stronger or weaker. So this line implies that J. Alfred Prufrock can feel greatness in him. He could have been a hero, but it’s just not happening. He can see his own failure already before he has tried anything. This makes him a tragic character.
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
Eternal = forever. Footman is a servant; one task such a person would do is hold your coat when you leave your house or when you enter a carriage. The eternal Footman = Death. Snicker = laugh in a disrespectful way.
And in short, I was afraid.
And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Again Prufrock mentions you and me, but is he talking about the reader still, or maybe of some lady companion?
Would it have been worth while,
Now Prufrock seems to have given up entirely. He talks as if the time for action lies already in the past.
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
Squeeze = press, like you do with a soft ball in your hand or a lemon to get the juice.
To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
Here is Prufrock’s overwhelming question again. Or it might be another question. What is certain is that Prufrock likes difficult existential questions that are actually too big for him to handle.
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Lazarus is the man that Jesus resurrected from the dead, according the Bible story [in the Gospel according to John].
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—
We are reminded again of the parallel with the poet in Dante’s Hell, where the poet also comes back to life to tell his story.
If one, settling a pillow by her head
Here it seems as if Prufrock has a lady in mind who might misunderstand him. Wouldn’t that be even worse than failure, is what he seems to ask himself. By the way, we still don’t know what the overwhelming question is, besides the one that we read at the beginning of the poem: “Shall I dare?” It could be that Prufrock is thinking about starting up with a certain woman he’s interested in. But he’s too afraid of failure.
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all.”
And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
Trail = come after.
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
A magic lantern is an old device that was used to project slides before photography and film were invented. They look like this:
Andrei Niemimäki
The magic lantern that Prufrock thinks of can show the nerves on the screen = how nervous he is.
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.”
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Now Prufrock understand he’s been exaggerating his own role. He’s not a prince or a heroic character.
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
He’s an attendant lord = a secondary character.
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Someone who fills out a crowd on the stage, or says a few things to start the action.
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Someone who can advise a more important person than him, someone who is just a tool.
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Deferential = polite. Glad to be of use = happy to help.
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Politic = diplomatic. Cautious = careful. Meticulous = with eye for detail.
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
Full of high sentence has a double meaning: it can mean that Prufrock is able to express himself in high language. But also he sentences himself = he judges himself and others probably too critically. Obtuse = indirect.
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
At times = sometimes.
Almost, at times, the Fool.
Prufrock is painting an accurate portrait of himself, which is that he is a gentleman who is too polite and too cowardly, and who’s never done anything important in his life.
I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Another whining, ridiculous image of Prufrock.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
Flannel = a heavy cotton.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
Mermaids, as said above, are those half-girl half-fish creatures from myth and fairytales.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
The mermaids won’t sing to Prufrock as his life is empty of magic.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
Combing = brushing.
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
Linger = stay a bit longer [also used earlier in the poem]. Chamber = room.
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Wreathe = put a string of flowers on.
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
Conclusion of this stanza: The tragedy of Prufrock is that he understands the tragedy of life, but he doesn’t live it. But he does live the magic of poetry, that is: the images of poetry.
Hope you liked this poem. To finish, these are my favourite lines:
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.