He seems simultaneously attracted to the women and unwilling, or unable, to envision asking one of them out. Prufrock has noticed the women’s arms – white and bare, and wearing bracelets – just as he is attracted by the smell of the perfume on the women’s dresses. Yes: even arms are imbued with curious symbolism in Eliot’s poem. Meanwhile, Prufrock’s cryptic statement that he has measured his life out in coffee-spoons (not teaspoons, the usual unit of measurement) suggests that he has already mapped out how many coffees he can expect to enjoy over the rest of his life.ĭoes this symbolise his longing for certainty and routine, or the rather mundane life to which he feels condemned? We can crave order over our lives, but a life stripped of all excitement and impulsiveness can become deadened and predictable. The more surreal or fantastical images and symbols of ‘Prufrock’ are at odds with the rather dull, staid, stultifying middle-class backdrop, the ordinary settings in which Prufrock has these more outlandish daydreams of escape: the references to cups, marmalade, tea, and ices all summon the drawing-rooms of respectable New England society and the tea dances where young, unmarried men and women would meet and, following fairly strict social codes, approach each other with a view to courtship and, eventually, marriage. It is real life, the life of New England society, which really ‘drowns’ or suffocates him: the sea provides escape. Ironically, he only ‘drowns’ – he and the mermaids in their oceanic paradise are destroyed, in his imagination – when ‘human voices’ recall him from his reverie, or daydream.
Indeed, Prufrock seems happy enough listening to the bewitching sound of the mermaids’ song (a detail possibly picked up from John Donne), and being left alone to enjoy their music. Alfred Prufrock is, perhaps, not a traditional love songPrufrock’s longing runs throughout the poem but is neatly concealed, his despair projected elsewhere. Although Prufrock’s statement that he does not think the mermaids will sing to him can be interpreted as self-pity (even the mermaids won’t notice Prufrock), he seems to welcome this blessed indifference as a contrast to the women he’s forced to socialise with at the dances and tea parties.
Word Count: 141 This passage begins with unnamed women coming and.
LOVE SONG ALFRED PRUFROCK PDF
Alfred Prufrock by T.S.The second notable sea-image in the poem comes at the end, when Prufrock talks about lingering in the sea, with mermaids singing to each other. 'In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo' PDF Cite Share Last Updated on June 8, 2022, by eNotes Editorial.
LOVE SONG ALFRED PRUFROCK FREE
She is a trustee and editor for Magma Poetry and has been Poet in Residence for the National Trust, Tate Britain, The John Hansard Gallery, K6 Gallery, SPUD (the Observatory), conservation organisation Back from the Brink, and was poet in residence at Royal Holloway University physics department, writing about the Cassini Space Mission.Įlla is in conversation with The Poetry Exchange hosts Fiona Bennett and Michael Shaeffer.īuy 76. Alfred Prufrock carries the characteristics of modernist poetry such as objective correlative, fragmentation, free verse and irregular rhyming. Her latest pamphlet I AM THE MOTHER CAT written as part of her residency at John Hansard Gallery is out with Rough Trade Books (2021).Įlla was recently named Poet in Residence for the Dartington Trust’s grade II listed Gardens, selected by Alice Oswald. Her debut collection, Shine, Darling, (Offord Road Books, 2020) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and the T. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to. Eliot.Įlla Frears is a poet and artist based in London. Shall I part my hair behind Do I dare to eat a peach I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. In this episode, poet Ella Frears talks about the poem that has been a friend to her: The The Love Song of J.
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