The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

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"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", a poem by T. S. Eliot, marked the start of his career as one of the twentieth century's most influential poets. Prufrock is one of the most anthologized 20th century poems in English.^[1] The poem takes the form of a dramatic monologue, a form that had been much favored by Robert Browning, and uses the "stream of consciousness" literary technique.^[2]

Contents 1 Composition and publication 2 The title 3 The epigraph 4 Interpretation 5 Use of Allusion 6 Sources 7 References to the poem in popular culture 7.1 Music 7.2 Film 7.3 Television, radio 7.4 Literature 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Composition and publication

Composed mainly between February 1910 and July 1911, the poem was first published in the June 1915 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (Chicago) after Ezra Pound, the magazine's foreign editor, persuaded Harriet Monroe, the magazine's founder, that Eliot was unique: "He has actually trained himself AND modernized himself ON HIS OWN. The rest of the promising young have done one or the other but never both." This was Eliot's first publication of a poem outside of school or university publications.

In June 1917 the Egoist, a small publishing firm run by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, published a pamphlet entitled Prufrock and Other Observations (London), containing 12 poems by Eliot. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was the first poem in the volume.

In Eliot's notebook of draft poems, Inventions of the March Hare (published posthumously in 1996 by the publishing firm of Harcourt Brace), it can be seen that Eliot withheld from publication most of 38 lines from the middle of the draft version of the poem. This section, known as Prufrock's Pervigilium, contains the "vigil" of Prufrock through an evening and night.

[edit] The title

In the drafts, the poem had the subtitle Prufrock among the Women.^[3] Eliot said "The Love Song of" portion of the title came from "The Love Song of Har Dyal", a poem by Rudyard Kipling.^[4] The form of Prufrock's name is like the name that Eliot was using at the time: T. Stearns Eliot.^[5] It has been suggested that Prufrock comes from the German word "Prüfstein" meaning "touchstone".^{[citation needed]} Eliot may have intended Prufrock's name to resound of a "prude" in a "frock".^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The epigraph

The epigraph for "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" presents an aspect of what is to follow. Although he finally chose not to use it, the draft version of the epigraph for the poem came from Dante's Purgatorio (XXVI, 147-148):

'sovegna vos a temps de ma dolor'.

Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina.

Eliot provided this translation in his essay "Dante" (1929):

'be mindful in due time of my pain'.

Then dived he back into that fire which refines them.

The quotation that Eliot did choose comes from Dante also, Inferno (XXVII, 61-66), which reads:

S`io credesse che mia risposta fosse

A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,

Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.

Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo

Non torno vivo alcun, s'i'odo il vero,

Senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

One translation from the Norton Anthology of Poetry is:

"If I thought my answer were given

to anyone who would ever return to the world,

this flame would stand still without moving any further.

But since never from this abyss

has anyone ever returned alive, if what I hear is true,

without fear of infamy I answer you."

[edit] Interpretation

As it shows us only surface thought and images, it is difficult to interpret exactly what is going on in the poem. Laurence Perrine wrote, "[the poem] presents the apparently random thoughts going through a person's head within a certain time interval, in which the transitional links are psychological rather than logical"^[6]. Thus, it is difficult to determine exactly what is literal and what is symbolic. Most agree that "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is about a sexually frustrated middle-aged man who wants to say something but is afraid to do so, and ultimately does not.^[7] The dispute, however, lies in who Prufrock is talking to, whether he is actually going anywhere, what he wants to say, and what the various images refer to.

First of all, it is not evident to whom the poem is addressed. Some believe that Prufrock is talking to another person ^[8] or directly to the reader^[9], while others believe Prufrock's monologue is internal. Perrine writes "The 'you and I' of the first line are divided parts of Prufrock's own nature"^[10], while Mutlu Konuk Blasing suggests that the "you and I" refers to the relationship between the dilemmas of the character and the author^[11]. Similarly, critics dispute whether Prufrock is going somewhere during the course of the poem. In the first half of the poem, Prufrock uses various outdoor images (the sky, streets, cheap restaurants and hotels, fog), and talks about how there will be time for various things before "the taking of toast and tea", and "time to turn back and descend the stair." This has led many to believe that Prufrock is on his way to an afternoon tea, in which he is preparing to ask this "overwhelming question"^[12]. Others, however, believe that Prufrock is not physically going anywhere, but rather, is playing through it in his mind ^[13].

Perhaps the most significant dispute lies over what the "overwhelming question" Prufrock is trying to ask. Many believe that Prufrock is trying to tell a woman his romantic interest in her^[14], pointing to the various images of women's arms and clothing and the final few lines in which Prufrock laments that the Mermaids will not sing to him. Others, however, believe that Prufrock is trying to express some deeper philosophical insight or disillusionment with society, but fears rejection, pointing to statements that express a disillusionment with society such as "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons"(line 51). Many believe that the poem is a criticism of Victorian society and Prufrock's dilemma represents the inability to live a meaningful existence in the modern world^[15] . McCoy and Harlan wrote "For many readers in the 1920s, Prufrock seemed to epitomize the frustration and impotence of the modern individual. He seemed to represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment." ^[16]

Finally, readers and critics are not sure what the many images refer to and what they represent. For example, "yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes"(line 15) has been interpreted as many things, from symbolism for the decline of society (in a similar manner as the Valley of Ashes in The Great Gatsby, another Modernist work)^{[citation needed]}, to a reference to the behaviour of a bear^[17] As the poem uses the stream of consciousness technique, it is often difficult to determine what is meant to be interpreted literally and what is symbolic, what is actual and what is subconscious imagery or both. In general, Eliot uses imagery which is indicative of Prufrock's character^[18], representing aging and decay. For example, "When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table"(lines 2-3), the "sawdust restaurants" and "cheap hotels," the yellow fog, and the afternoon "Asleep...tired...or it malingers"(line 77), are reminiscent of languor and decay, while Prufrock's various concerns about his hair and teeth, as well as the mermaids "Combing the white hair of the waves blown back / When the wind blows the water white and black," show his concern over aging.

[edit] Use of Allusion

Like many of Eliot's poems, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" makes numerous allusions to other works, which are often symbolic in and of themselves.^[19] Perrine writes about the various allusions in the poem:

"In ["Time for all the works and days of hands"(line 29)] the phrase 'works and days' is the title of a long poem - a description of agricultural life and a call to toil - by the early Greek poet Hesiod.

["I know the voices dying with a dying fall"(line 52)] echoes the opening lines of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

The prophet of ["Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter / I am no prophet - and here's no great matter"(lines 81-2)] is John the Baptist, whose head was delivered to Salome by Herod as a reward for her dancing(Matthew14:1-11, and Oscar Wilde's play Salome).

["To have squeezed the universe into a ball"(line 92)] echoes the closing lines of Marvell's 'To his Coy Mistress'.

["'I am Lazarus, come from the dead'"(line 94)] may be either the beggar Lazarus (of Luke 16) who was not permitted to return from the dead to warn the brothers of a rich man about Hell or the Lazarus (of John 11) whom Christ raised from the dead or both...

'Full of high sentence'(117) echoes Chaucer's description of the Clerk of Oxford in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales."^[20]

In the final section of the poem, Prufrock contrasts himself to Hamlet, saying he is merely "an attendant lord"(line 112), "Almost, at times, the Fool" (a court jester).

"Among some talk of you and me" may be a reference to Quatrain 32 of Edward FitzGerald's first translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam("There was a Door to which I found no Key / There was a Veil past which I could not see / Some little Talk awhile of ME and THEE / There seemed - and then no more of THEE and ME.")^[21]

[edit] Sources

There was a "Prufrock-Littau Company" in St Louis at the time Eliot lived there, a furniture store.^[22]

[edit] References to the poem in popular culture

[edit] Music

The Rush song "Open Secrets" (from 1987's Hold Your Fire) includes the line "That's not what I meant at all" (cf. "That is not what I meant at all").

Lloyd Cole's song "Mr Malcontent" contains a reference to this poem. The song is a character study of Daniel Day Lewis's character Johnny in the movie My Beautiful Laundrette. In the song, Johnny asks himself a question that Prufrock asks: "Should I part my hair behind?"

The American indie rock band Joan of Arc reworked the enigmatic, recurring two-line stanza, "In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo." Lead singer Tim Kinsella croons, "In the room the women come and go talking of Leonardo DiCaprio." The lyric may be found in the song "White Out" on the 1998 album A Portable Model Of... (Jade Tree Records).

The Manic Street Preachers song "My Guernica" from their 2001 album Know Your Enemy includes the line "Alfred J. Prufrock would be proud of me".

Tori Amos' song "Pretty Good Year" from her album Under the Pink references the poem in the line "I heard the eternal Footman/Bought himself a bike to race" a reference to Eliot's lines "And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker".

The Momus song "The Sadness of Things" quotes the line, "Do I dare to eat a peach?"

Butch Trucks, the drummer for the Allman Brothers' Band, said in a Rolling Stone interview that this poem may have been Duane Allman's inspiration for the title of their album, Eat A Peach.

The poem also inspired the song Afternoons & Coffeespoons, by the Canadian band, Crash Test Dummies.

American indie band Bayside's song "Talking of Michelangelo" follows along the lines of this poem and has some references to "The Hollow Men". It mainly emphasizes the narrator's loneliness and the passing of time among other parallel themes.

Million Dead's Murder and Create is heavily influenced by the poem. The band's lead singer, Frank Turner, has often spoke of his love of Eliot and has lines from The Satyricon, quoted at the start of The Waste Land, tattooed on his arm.

Lucia Micarelli's album titled Music from a Farther Room references the line "I know the voices dying with a dying fall/beneath the music from a farther room."

Seminal Australian Rock Band The Fauves reference J. Alfred Prufrock in the song "You Wanted It" on their 2004 self titled album.

[edit] Film

A well known example of this poem being quoted in later popular culture exists in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Dennis Hopper's character, a photojournalist, refers to himself, saying: "I should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of silent seas." This line follows a reference to another famous poem, Rudyard Kipling's If— . This particular line is also parodied by Woody Allen in his 1975 comedy Love and Death: the main character writes it while composing a poem, then throws it away, remarking "Too sentimental!"

The Australian movie Till Human Voices Wake Us, starring Guy Pearce and Helena Bonham Carter, is inspired by this poem. It is recited more than once, especially the lines "Let us go then you and I," which are the foundation for the movie.

The title of the 1987 film I've Heard the Mermaids Singing references the poem.

The title of the 1986 film Eat the Peach is a reference to the poem.

James Kerwin's film Yesterday Was a Lie (Kipleigh Brown, Chase Masterson, John Newton, Peter Mayhew) is partially inspired by this poem and is said to contain veiled references to it.

The 1974 sci-fi/fantasy film Zardoz references a few lines towards the end.

[edit] Television, radio

The short-lived Twin Peaks-esque series Push, Nevada heavily referenced the poem. Examples include the main character's name (Jim Prufrock) and the shadowy men in black characters who occasionally spoke in Prufrock quotations.

Prufrock's lament about having "measured out my life in coffee spoons" is quoted in an episode of the US television series Law & Order, as is the line, "Do I dare to eat a peach?"

The 2nd Season Finale of The Paper Chase (May, 1984) was entitled "Not Prince Hamlet (aka Rashomon)", referring to a student's suicide note quoting lines 111-15 of the Eliot poem.

The poem's name is also referred to in the name of the radio play The Lovesong of Alfred J. Hitchcock.

Two episodes of the ITV series Wire in the Blood reference portions of the poem; "The Mermaids Singing" and "A Time to Murder and Create."

The poem is mentioned in numerous episodes of Alan Bleasdale's drama series GBH by Michael Murray's old headmaster, who shares many of Prufrock's attributes.

An episode in the fifth and final season of the HBO television series Six Feet Under is titled "Eat A Peach"

[edit] Literature

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events features a school by the name of Prufrock Preparatory School as well as references to T. S. Eliot.

Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman: The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover (1996, ISBN 0-684-80377-1)

The third book in crime writer Lawrence Block's series of detective novels featuring the character Matthew Scudder is entitled "Time to Murder and Create."

Sarah Dessen references the poem when she writes "until mermaids wake us... and we drown..." it in her young adult novel, Dreamland, a story about an abusive relationship.

[edit] See also

• T. S. Eliot
• Modernism
• Ezra Pound
• Stream of Consciousness
• Symbolism
• Portrait of a Lady

[edit] External links

• J.Alfred Prufrock Study Guide Annotated Text, Themes, Study Questions, and More
• Eliot's Prufrock Text and extended audio discussion of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
• Audio of T.S. Eliot reading the poem aloud
• Prufrock and Other Observations, available at Project Gutenberg.
• Professor Prufrock (a law professor spoof)