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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
"Do I dare disturb the universe?"
Anxiety, worries, and fears rendering you unable to act on your thoughts. Not knowing what to expect from the future besides the foreseeable outcome of thinning hair and growing old. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock portrays these common concerns with eloquence.
There are many lines throughout the piece that I have thought over. The third line states, “Like a patient etherized upon a table”. I think that Eliot uses this image as a foreshadowing of Prufrock’s inability to act, a numbing feeling which leads him to be incapable of entering the house full of women conversing about Michelangelo. Eliot also writes about a fog; “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes”. I can’t help but notice that this fog takes on animal-like qualities. This description sounds more like a cat to me than a yellow fog. Is Prufrock the cat? Why doesn’t he enter the house? Is he afraid of the women or nervous to speak to them?
Prufrock questions himself incessantly with the question “Do I dare?”. He asks this on a couple different occasions; “Do I dare Disturb the universe?” and “Do I dare eat a peach?”. The latter question is interesting. I found that a peach is a Chinese symbol for marriage and immortality. Is Prufrock afraid of these things although he actually desires them? In fact, there are many questions throughout the entire piece. Prufrock seems indecisive and confused. Also, the fog (cat?) at the beginning of the piece never enters the house. This further strengthens the theme of indecisiveness.
He worries about growing older and how this will affect his outer appearance. His hair is thinning along with his arms and legs. He says, “I grow old…I grow old…I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled”. Apparently, rolling up the bottoms of one’s pants is an attempt to ward off death. This hints back to the previous point I made about Prufrock wanting immortality. His concerns about getting older show that he knows his desire is impossible.
Overall, my thoughts about this piece is that Prufrock has been bothered his whole life with his indecisiveness and his lack of taking action. He goes back and forth questioning himself about if he is daring enough to do the things he wishes (voice his opinion to the world, get married, live a full life [immortality?], etc.). His fear paralyzes him and he’s growing older. He is trying to hesitantly figure out what to do before it is too late.
There are many lines throughout the piece that I have thought over. The third line states, “Like a patient etherized upon a table”. I think that Eliot uses this image as a foreshadowing of Prufrock’s inability to act, a numbing feeling which leads him to be incapable of entering the house full of women conversing about Michelangelo. Eliot also writes about a fog; “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes”. I can’t help but notice that this fog takes on animal-like qualities. This description sounds more like a cat to me than a yellow fog. Is Prufrock the cat? Why doesn’t he enter the house? Is he afraid of the women or nervous to speak to them?
Prufrock questions himself incessantly with the question “Do I dare?”. He asks this on a couple different occasions; “Do I dare Disturb the universe?” and “Do I dare eat a peach?”. The latter question is interesting. I found that a peach is a Chinese symbol for marriage and immortality. Is Prufrock afraid of these things although he actually desires them? In fact, there are many questions throughout the entire piece. Prufrock seems indecisive and confused. Also, the fog (cat?) at the beginning of the piece never enters the house. This further strengthens the theme of indecisiveness.
He worries about growing older and how this will affect his outer appearance. His hair is thinning along with his arms and legs. He says, “I grow old…I grow old…I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled”. Apparently, rolling up the bottoms of one’s pants is an attempt to ward off death. This hints back to the previous point I made about Prufrock wanting immortality. His concerns about getting older show that he knows his desire is impossible.
Overall, my thoughts about this piece is that Prufrock has been bothered his whole life with his indecisiveness and his lack of taking action. He goes back and forth questioning himself about if he is daring enough to do the things he wishes (voice his opinion to the world, get married, live a full life [immortality?], etc.). His fear paralyzes him and he’s growing older. He is trying to hesitantly figure out what to do before it is too late.
I‘m usually not one for poetry but Eliot‘s poems... fragmented and sometimes difficult to understand as they are... somehow struck a chord with me
The Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock (my new fav) is a 5/5, the others were really good as well but overall 4*
I've read Prufrock and some of Eliot's other poems, but not this entire book. Needlessly to say, he's mind blowing. Prufrock changed my view of poetry entirely.
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
This is undoubtedly the best poem ever written, I feel so lucky I got the chance to study it, or else I am pretty sure I wouldn't have stumbled across it. Or if I had had, I wouldn't have picked it up for fear I might not be able to grasp the meaning behind it. But, amazingly, I did, I felt it in my bones which made it all the more shocking. I've been crying my eyes out for an hour or so, no poem has ever had such an impact on me before.
Just like Alfred, I lie to myself on a daily basis, I keep telling myself "there will be time, there will be time", when in fact, I know the opposite is rather the case. Time is unforgiving, and I am a procrastinator, there is so much I'd like to experience, but my crippling fear of life tells me I've had enough, I've seen it all. I shudder at the thought of death, at its unpredictability, at how one day it might creep on me, snickering, and in short, I am afraid.
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
This is undoubtedly the best poem ever written, I feel so lucky I got the chance to study it, or else I am pretty sure I wouldn't have stumbled across it. Or if I had had, I wouldn't have picked it up for fear I might not be able to grasp the meaning behind it. But, amazingly, I did, I felt it in my bones which made it all the more shocking. I've been crying my eyes out for an hour or so, no poem has ever had such an impact on me before.
Just like Alfred, I lie to myself on a daily basis, I keep telling myself "there will be time, there will be time", when in fact, I know the opposite is rather the case. Time is unforgiving, and I am a procrastinator, there is so much I'd like to experience, but my crippling fear of life tells me I've had enough, I've seen it all. I shudder at the thought of death, at its unpredictability, at how one day it might creep on me, snickering, and in short, I am afraid.
My, the lyricism in this poem! My favourite excerpt is towards the end, "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." (But did he really have to be so pretentious with that whole Italian copycat passage at the start? :P)