Learning Objectives
FPO
For pages 179–188, 314
In studying this text, you
will focus on the following
objectives:
Literary Study: Analyzing
allusion.
Reading: Connecting to
cultural context.
The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock
by T. S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
179
Before You Read
The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock
Connect to the Poem
Respond to each of the following questions on the lines below them.
•
This poem was written in an era in which poets were beginning to reject conventional poetic forms. What form or
forms do you expect the poem to take?
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•
The title includes the phrase “Love Song.” What do you expect from a poem that includes these words in the title?
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Think about the name of the poem’s protagonist: J. Alfred Prufrock. What do you expect of a person with this name?
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Build Background
•
T. S. Eliot was one of the twentieth century’s most influential writers. His
experiments in language and forms changed literary tastes.
•
Eliot began his career as rural ways of life were giving way to rapid urbanization, or
the growth of cities.
•
In many cities, factories dominated neighborhoods crowded with teeming
tenement buildings.
•
Eliot’s poetry examined the feelings of loneliness, alienation, and frustration that
many people felt living in impersonal modern cities.
Now, without looking at what you just read, write down two facts that you remember
from the Build Background notes.
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Set Purposes for Reading
In this poem, T. S. Eliot presents a strange, dreamlike journey through a modern city.
Read to find out in what ways he rejects some of the conventions of traditional poetry.
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Literary Element Allusion
In a work of literature, an allusion is an indirect reference to a character, a place, or
a situation from history, art, music, or literature. Authors often use allusions to deepen
the meaning they are trying to bring across in their work. Think about the following
situations and how you would experience them. Then, on the lines below, identify an
allusion you might make if you were to write about your reaction to the experience.
Your allusion can be from literature, movies, television, popular music, and any other
cultural form with which you are familiar.
•
You are at a party and you don’t know any other guest.
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•
You just led your team to victory in an athletic or academic contest.
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Reading Strategy Connect to Cultural Context
A piece of writing is more meaningful when it is placed within its cultural context ,
or the society in which the writer lived, the technologies that surrounded the writer,
and the historical forces that influenced the writer. Meaning is also enhanced by
recognizing references to cultural contexts within the piece of writing itself. As you
read, use the chart like the one below to note and identify the cultural context of
passages in the poem and to evaluate their importance to your interpretation of the
poem. A sample has been done for you.
Passage
Cultural Context
“When the evening is spread out Modern technology (surgery)
against the sky/Like a patient
etherised upon a table.”
Interpretation
This reference makes nature itself
(the evening sky) seem diseased.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Antonyms
Antonyms are words that mean the opposite or nearly the opposite.
Recognizing that a word is an antonym of another word can help build
your vocabulary and understanding of words. Review the vocabulary
words on the right. Using these definitions, match each bold-faced
word below with its antonym from the list next to it Write the letter of
the antonym on the line next to the vocabulary word.
1. insidious _____
a. focus
2. presume _____
b. obvious
3. digress _____
c. know
4. malinger _____
d. disobedient
5. deferential _____
e. persevere
insidious (in siʼ dē əs) adj. operating in a not
easily observed manner, usually with a negative
effect
presume (pri zoomʼ) v. to expect something
without justification; to take for granted
digress (dı̄ gresʼ) v. to depart from the main
subject; to ramble
malinger (mə lingʼ gər) v. pretends incapacity or
illness to avoid work
deferential (defʼ ə renʼ shəl) adj. yielding to
someone else’s opinions or wishes
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
181
The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock
S’io credessi che mia resposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza più scosse.
Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo
non tornò vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
senza tema d’infamia ti respondo.
Read and Discuss
The first stanza is an epigraph
from Dante’s Inferno, a
medieval Italian poem
describing a journey through
hell. Here, a condemned spirit
confesses his sins because he
believes what he says will not
be revealed to those still on
Earth. With a partner, discuss
why Eliot begins the poem this
way. What does his inclusion
of the epigraph tell about the
people he expected to be
reading the poem at the time it
was written? Write your answer
on the lines below.
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5
10
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised1 upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious2 argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question…
Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’
Let us go and make our visit.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.3
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Vocabulary
insidious (in siʼ dē əs) adj.
operating in a not easily
observed manner, usually with a
negative effect
1. Etherised (etherized) (eʼ thə rı̄zdʼ) means “anesthetized with ether, as before an
operation”; in other words, “made insensitive to pain.”
2. Tedious means “tiresome because of length” or “boring.”
3. Michelangelo Buonarroti (mı̄ʼ kəl anʼ jə lō bwô nä rôʼ tē) (1475–1564) was a gifted
Italian sculptor and painter.
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The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
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.
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;
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,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a 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?’
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—
(They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin!’)
My morning coat,4 my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted5 by a simple pin—
(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.
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;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?
Vocabulary Skill
Antonyms Identify an antonym for
the word insidious. How would the
meaning of the lines of the poem
change if the antonym were used?
Write your answer on the lines
below.
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Reading Strategy
Connect to Cultural Context What
does the metaphor in line 51
tell the reader about the society
that Prufrock inhabits? Write your
answer on the lines below.
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Vocabulary
4. A morning coat is a man’s jacket that slopes away from a front button at the waist
to tails at the back. It was worn for formal daytime dress.
5. Here, asserted means “made more bold” or “enhanced.”
presume (pri zoomʼ) v. to expect
something without justification;
to take for granted
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
183
The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock
Vocabulary
55
digress (di gresʼ) v. to depart
from the main subject; to
ramble
60
Vocabulary
malinger (mə lı̄ngʼ gər) v.
pretends incapacity or illness to
avoid work
Literary Element
Allusion Although he does not
claim to be a prophet, Prufrock
compares himself to John the
Baptist. How does Prufrock
imagine his head “brought in upon
a platter”? Write your answer on
the lines below.
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65
70
75
80
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85
Reading Strategy
Connect to Cultural Context How
does the symbol in lines 85 and
86 function in the cultural context
of the poem? Write your answer
on the lines below.
90
And I have known the eyes already, known them all—
The eyes that fix you in a formulated6 phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?
And I have known the arms already, known them all—
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)?
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?…
I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep…tired…or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in
upon a platter7
I am no prophet8—and here’s no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman9 hold my coat, and snicker,
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,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
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184
6. Formulated means reduced to or expressed as a formula,” thereby losing individuality.
7. [head . . . platter] This biblical reference is to the beheading of the prophet John
the Baptist (Matthew 14:1–11). Delighted with the dancing of his stepdaughter
Salome, King Herod promised her anything she desired. Prompted by her mother,
Salome asked for John’s head on a platter and Herod granted her request.
8. A prophet is a person who predicts the future or who speaks by divine inspiration.
9. The eternal Footman is Death.
The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock
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100
105
110
To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
To say: ‘I am Lazarus, come from the dead,10
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all’—
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
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—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern11 threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
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.’
Literary Element
Allusion Irony refers to an
outcome contrary to what is
expected. How is Prufrock’s
allusion to Lazarus ironic? Write
your answer on the lines below.
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10. [I am Lazarus . . . dead] This biblical reference is to John 11:1–44 in which
Jesus revives his friend Lazarus who has been dead for four days.
11. The magic lantern, a forerunner of the modern slide projector, was a device for
projecting enlarged images.
READING CHECK
Predict
Review the first four pages of the poem then make a prediction
about how the poem will end, on the next page.
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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
185
The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock
Literary Element
Allusion What does the allusion in
lines 111 and 112 tell the reader
about how Prufrock sees himself?
Write your answer on the lines
below.
115
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120
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I grow old…I grow old…
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
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No! I am not Prince Hamlet,12 nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress,13 start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic,14 cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;15
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.
125
I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
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130
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.
Vocabulary
deferential (defʼ ə renʼ shəl) adj.
yielding to someone else’s
opinions or wishes
12. Prince Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, the tragic hero of Shakespeare’s play
Hamlet.
13. To swell a progress is to participate in, and thereby increase (swell) the number
of people in a royal procession or a play.
14. Politic (poʼ lə tik) means ”characterized by prudence or shrewdness in managing,
dealing, or promoting a policy.”
15. High sentence is fancy, pompous speech full of advice, like that of the old counselor
Polonius in Hamlet. Obtuse (əb toos) means “slow in understanding” or “dull.”
READING CHECK
Summarize
In your own words, summarize the main ideas of the poem.
Write your summary on the lines below.
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186
After You Read
The Love Song of
J. Alfred Prufrock
Connect to the Poem
Look back at your responses to the questions on page 180. Were your
expectations correct? In what ways were your expectations not met? Write your
answer on the lines below.
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Literary Element Allusion
Look back at the allusions you identified that applied to the situations described
on page 181. How were the allusions you made like and unlike those T. S. Eliot
makes in the poem? Write your answer on the lines below.
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Reading Strategy Connect to Cultural Context
Review the “cultural context” chart you completed as you read the poem. Then
use the sentence frames below to describe both Prufrock’s actual world and his
mental life.
The cultural context of Prufrock’s world is ______________________________________________________________
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The cultural context of Prufrock’s mental life ____________________________________________________________
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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
187
The Love Song of
After You Read
J. Alfred Prufrock
Vocabulary
insidious
presume
digress
malinger
deferential
A. Word Meaning Respond to the following statements to help you explore the
meanings of the vocabulary words from the selection. Write you answers on
the lines below.
1. How is an insidious argument different from a direct argument?
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2. What could you do to confirm something you presume to be true?
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3. What might you do if a friend begins to digress during a discussion about
school work?
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4. If an employee malingers, what would a supervisor do?
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5. What words would you use to describe someone who is deferential?
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B. Antonyms Identify an antonym for each vocabulary word then write a
sentence for each word in the antonym pair. If you can, use both words in
the antonym pair in one sentence. Write your sentences on the lines below,
underlining the antonyms.
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For more practice, see page 314.
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