The Love Song of J' Alfred Prufrock

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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

• T.S. Eliot

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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

• The speaker of this ironic monologue is a modern
  urban man who feels isolated and incapable of
  decisive action.
• This is not a conventional love song- Prufrock
  would like to speak of love to a woman, but he
  does not dare.
• He examines and reexamines his regrets and his
  inability to disturb the universe

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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

• The poem opens with a quoted passage from Dante's
  INFERNO, suggesting that Prufrock is one of the
  damned and that he speaks only because he is sure
  no one will listen.

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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

• This song is the modern mans struggle to
  identify himself in an ever changing modern
  society.
• The poem also examines how regret and the passing
  of time (aging) burdens all men.

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The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

• Poetry Terms to know
• Allusion- when a poem refers to a piece of
  literature, an event, a person, or a place.
• Personification- giving human like qualities to
  inanimate objects.
• Simile-comparing two things using like or as.
• Metaphor- comparing two things without using like
  or as.