Eugene Salazar Mr.

Vincenz Serrano
Lit 292.3 Development of Poetry August 22, 2007

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: An Epitaph of a Modernist Hero

Of the many poems written by the noted Anglo-American modernist poet, T.S. Eliot, The

Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock is without a doubt (next to The Waste Land) the single work that

helped launched Eliot’s name in the English literary universe of the 20th century. It has also been

dubbed as one of the most difficult of his pre-1920 poems. A close look at the poem reveals how

it subverts the traditional rhyme and meter assignment of poetry of the early centuries, making it

a premiere vers libre

A Closer Look at Prufrock Themselves

Many eminent scholars (Kermode xiii ; Lu, 45; Matthiessen, 15) trace the influence of

Jules Laforgue(1860-87) in Eliot’s poem. Laforgue is a French poet, who although not a renown

name at the time, was credited for creating a new form of monologue- the interior monologue.

The concept is of a persona who speaks in a literary schizoid. This is a device known as

dedoublement and in the context of Prufrock, the speaker in the poem provides an interior

monologue, thus the poem’s opening lines, “Let us go then you and I”. A lot of deductions can be

made out of this particular Laforguian trait of Prufrock. First, the conscious choice to make the

speaker talk to himself, (as two aspects of one personality, or a self being aware of his thinking

self and his self who is observing that he is thinking) is a reflection of the modernist implosion of

the notion of self-hood, a relentless questioning of the self’s stable status. Secondly, it is a novel

way of extending the concept of a poetic persona already created by Robert Browning’s speaker

in My Last Duchess; thus, augmenting the task of the persona from a mere mouthpiece in the
dramatic monologue pioneered by Browning. Thirdly, the dedoublement technique is a forerunner

of the postmodern aesthetic of exploding the stability of a single voice in the literary text,

prophetically giving birth to the problematics of authorship, objective interpretation and

intentionality in the text as explored by post-structuralist theorists.

The fact that the speaker in the poem admits openly of the split reveals the modernist

Eliot and the subsequent split in the era of 20the century dichotomy of sensibility and reason,

stability and chaos, structure and diversion, unity and fractured identities. Throughout the poem,

the personae vacillates in making decisions (“a time yet for a hundred indecisions, and for a

hundred visions and revisions”). One can almost sense the feeling of uncertainty in the persona’s

ability to make valid choices (“Do I dare?”) and even a lack of confidence in arriving at a

reasonable task to pursue (“and should I then presume”;”and how should I begin”?) The

insecurity is extended to images of almost stirring helplessness (“I have measured out my life in

coffee spoons”; “to spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways”). The speaker seems to be

self-congratulatory in tone, although the congratulations seem to be for being a cosmic failure.

In its stanzas, Prufrock successfully paints a bleak and sour loser although his failure is

one that is borne out of indecision and apathy. The roots of such indifference in fact springs from

the tragic confusion spawned by the terrifying sensibilities of the modern age, its never ending

narratives of war, conflicts among nations, the death of the age of faith and the rapid changes

swallowing the Anglo-American capitalist world of the time. These are enough, at least by

Prufrock’s perceptions, to ferret out confidence in any external source of cohesion since in Eliot’s

era, many former monolithic sources of the Center have slowly shown their vulnerabilities:

religious institutions, monarchs, and colonial powers, and even revered societal institutions.

The splitting of the persona’s persona brought about a representation in poetry of the soul of the

human person in the contemporary world. Although, abysmally bleak in its characterization of his

speaker, Eliot religiously uses the Laforguian technique to mirror the Zeitgeist of his world. The
speaker is likened to a prophet, to a Danish prince and even wishes to be a crustacean scuttling on

the silent floors of the seas.

Kaleidoscopic Imagery and Indecisiveness as Prufrockian Virtue

What makes The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (along with The Waste Land) appealing

both for its difficulty and its notoriety is its rich repository of allusions pregnant with novel (and

even recycled) imagery. The quotidian rotes of existence, the predicament engulfing the persona

in abysmally pessimistic terms, and the sheer description of perceived human dilemmas will

definitely haunt the sensitive reader of this poem.

The stark references that amplify the helplessness of Prufrock strongly reinforce the

persona’s sense of loss. This loss is strangely connected to both metaphysical as well as corporeal

concerns. The profuse references to physical traits that show entropy (“How his hair is growing

thin”; “But how his legs and arms are thin!” “I grow old…I grow old”) belittles the persona and

reinforces the idea that like the era in which he finds himself in, he is likewise slowly fading

away. His influence, like the advice of old men and philosophers, appear to have been either

ignored or forgotten.

In the poem, Prufrock realizes the indecisiveness remains because his reasons for not

taking any action seem to be of overwhelming inertness. This was embodied in the image of a fog

(and its movements, to a cat) as it drowsily casts its similar hypnotic sense of apathy to the city.

Observe the imagery for example:

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
These lines show a representative way with which Eliot speaks through Prufrock the notion of

indecisiveness incarnated through the metaphor of a feline- a strange yet familiar icon of the

urban roof tops and streets. This is both a literary and autobiographical allusion (Jain, 44). The

scene presents the superimposition of the picture of the urban world with the edges of the human

psyche’s interaction with the external world. The haunting image of the cat prowling in the

streets, jumping on roofs and braving the lonely night in search for food is an apt symbol for the

human predicament- alone, in search of meaning and passively attuned to the indecisive streak of

the night, retreats to self absorption and apathy. Indeed, this seems to be the strongest image

version of Prufrock the speaker.

Prufrock as speaker sustains his voice through countless images all geared towards

preserving the sullen mood begun in the first few lines. Relentless questioning by Prufrock of the

reader (and his split personality) fills successive lines: “And would it have been worth it after all,

To have bitten the matter with a smile, to have squeezed the universe into a ball (an allusion to a

line of Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress); To say I am Lazarus, come from the dead”.

Prufrock doesn’t seem to end his litany of self-doubt as he compares the futility of taking action

to the inevitable incredulity of Lazarus’ report. In a previous line of the poem, he speaks of his

not being a prophet (an allusion to John the Baptist from Scriptures) and therefore of his

withdrawal from his duty to stand for a certain course of action which is in this case, inaction. In

another line he speaks of not being Prince Hamlet, the iconic Shakespearean figure of delay and

procrastination. Although Prufrock chastises himself, he arrogates to himself a vice /virtue of

indifference as he summons the image of the Danish prince to his side for support and

legitimation. The act is of course a form of affirmation, albeit one that justifies the act delay.

Like Hamlet, Prufrock is plagued by inner conflict but unlike him, Prufrock suffers terminally

and vicariously for the tension of the old world and the new and while he converses with himself

in this interior monologue, the forked Borgian path of resolution is never achieved, highlighting

only the longing for the very quest itself for resolution. Nonetheless Prufrock realizes that such
quick and automatic answers will weaken the claims of the drama. The solution itself might prove

mechanical and not existential, reducing again the status of human identity and destiny to the

machinations of the modern age.

Repetition and Meaning in Prufrock

In The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock, repetition as a poetic device does not in

the primary sense, reinforce the poem’s structural integrity since T.S. Eliot himself in this vers

libre of Laforguian type does not prioritize the structure over the content of the poem. It may also

be a sweeping generalization to concede that Eliot paid no attention to poetic form, for indeed

there is a veritable structure to the poem no matter how much free versification it has acquired in

Eliot’s hands.

Repetition is used in Prufrock mainly for sustaining the crescendo of thought

built in previous stanzas and in the entire poem, repetition takes in the form of phrases, lines and

couplets. The repetition is inserted at a point in the verse where a collusion of stealthy images and

powerful tones are timely formed. Consider the opening request “Let us go then…”repeated

thrice in the opening stanza alone. It is a request for action, although ironically the poem’s over

all mood is indecision. Obliquely placed against the pervasive theme of flaccid temperament, the

admonition to go even though no breath taking solution is at work nor a promised liberation will

take place, the repetition cancels the inertia with a prodding to take action, albeit one of inaction.

In this bright sense, Eliot remakes the Laforguian monologue from sheer formal dimension to a

meaning rich device.

The relentless questioning of Prufrock’s ability to come up with an excellent

workable reply to the human dilemma is reinforced in the jibes for self doubt and self capacity to

deliver a saving answer to the human condition as ably embodied by Prufrock. He questions

himself mercilessly with “Do I dare? Do I dare?”. Here it is not just the admonition to go beyond

Prufrock’s ability but it is even a command to break one’s limitation. The alliterative aspect
utilizes the sound and at the same time the prophetic exhortation to dare. The human psyche is

therefore forced to confront the possible problems prevailing upon human beings. Although

Prufrock lives in the realm of subjunctives, the prodding is a feeble attempt nonetheless

legitimate to command respect from readers to sympathize with Prufrock’s failings. The reader

will be terribly overwhelmed by Prufrockian staticism. No amount of action seem to be resolved

in the end, after all the repetitive reminders to break the boundaries, but herein lies again another

rich discovery for the reader of Eliot. The fixation with the phrase “Do I dare?” alters Prufrock’s

stale thoughts a bit and introduces the tension, so descriptive of Prufrock’s Shakespearean

counterpart- Hamlet. The tension again protracts the angst of Prufrock, making him forever hated

and loved by those who see him rightly.

The continuation of self-doubt and the theme of the inability to have self-confidence is

presented again in the repetition of “And should I then presume?” in at least three instances in the

poem. Here, Prufrock philosophizes along the line of what assumptions should be adopted before

actions- responsible, free and well thought of ones, should be engaged. The philosophical bent is

strengthened by the repetition. It even asks a priori if a certain set of assumptions be even

assumed, or for one should certain assumptions take precedence over others as the core basis of a

Prufrockian individual’s sense of engagement with the world. Or should the individual simply act

without thinking of a universal set of principles encompassing his motives? Thus, in this sense a

philosophical undertone is brought into the surface by means of repetitive technique.

Of the repeated phrase utilized in Prufrock, the following line takes an interesting

presence: “In the room, women come and go, talking of Michelangelo”. What makes the line

interesting is its apparent lack of continuity with the preceding and succeeding line. It was

repeated once in the poem. Frank Kermode, a noted American writer, notes this as another

borrowing from Laforgue’s “In the room, women come and go; Talking of the Sienese masters”

(Kermode, 82). It would be too naïve to ignore the truth in this particular observation, but it is

also of great notice that Eliot’s repetition here is also for contextual enrichment. Jain notes that
the reference to the women who talk of Michelangelo is a contrast to Prufrock’s inability to fuse

together his desire to articulate his sense of worth and his sense of engagement with the world.

(Jain, 45). Contrasted to the women who could speak clearly of the great artist’s affairs and

works, Prufrock forever embodies the mute speaker, deprived of a voice to articulate the

crumbling world he is in, the conflicting passions, sensibilities and conventions of his time.

Prufrock is condemned forever in his limbo of indecision, marked by eternal musings on whether

this or that action should have been done. This is because the mention of the line ”Women come

and go…” is fixed before stanzas that dwell on the main themes of procrastination. This is

severely justified by Prufrock as belonging to “ a time yet for a hundred visions and revisions,

before the taking of a toast and tea. ” Taking toast and tea of course takes place in no hurried

scenario. Thus, the meaning behind the allusion to Michelangelo is one of articulate versus

taciturn speech, and consequently confidence for assessment of situations. The Prufrockian hero

jeers the articulate person but rejoices in the voiceless caricature of the human condition. The

Mchelangelo allusion and repetition is one of reinforcing a powerful aspect of the Prufrockian

vision of life.

All throughout The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock, repetition is utilized as a sound

device as well as a meaning enhancer. The verses before and after these repetitions are enriched

in their content as Eliot, following the Laforguian interior monologue richly exploits the power of

sound and meaning devices in the poetic genre. In Prufrock, it serves an effective purpose as well

as a contrapuntal device for oral delivery and structural sign posts occasionally.

The hero of this work of Eliot is a pessimistic figure, a stark representation of the

confused and fallen age which is incidentally hailed as the hero of a modern world- one who is

totally honest with the failings and limitations of the modern world. The persona engages in self-

depreciation not out of despair alone but out of a shocking realization that the world is not well,

that even the human agency of action- the self is an amorphous allocation of interstitial references

to modalities of thinking, one that cannot be firmly pinned down nor be fully understood with
certainty. This is the incarnation of Prufrock as a speaker for his age and his generation of broken

human agents, both schizoid in his aspirations and his weaknesses.

Works Cited

Barry, O.P. Sr. Mary Martin.An Analysis of the Prosodic Structure of Selected Poems of
T.S. Eliot.Washington D.C: The Catholic University of America Press, 1969.

Eliot, T.S. The Waste Land and Other Poems. Ed. Frank Kermode. New York: Penguin
Books, 1998.

Frye, Northrop. T.S.Eliot. New York: Capricorn Books, 1972.

Jain, Manju. A Critical Reading of the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2002.

Lu, Fei-Pai. T.S. Eliot The Dialectical Structure of His Theory of Poetry. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1966.

Matthiessen, F.O.The Achievement of T.S. Eliot. An Essay on the Nature of Poetry.

London: Oxford University Press, 1947.

Preminger, Alex. ed.The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton,
New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1974.

Smidt, Kristian. Poetry and Belief in the Work of T.S. Eliot. London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul,1961.