The Enduring Poem: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

“Prufrock” has been my favorite poem since I read it senior year of high school. T.S. Eliot just manages to capture everything that I feel about life. Here I am going to try to explain why this poem, written almost a hundred years ago, appeals to so many people.

For starters, here’s a link to the poem. Go ahead and read it if you haven’t, I’m not going anywhere. Just appreciate the poem for what it is.

Have you read it a few times? Then let’s start!

You might not have noticed, but I think that the words themselves that are being used are simply beautiful. The rhyme scheme just pulls you along, I often forget that I’m supposed to be analyzing and just read the poem again. Or phrases like “insidious intent” or “hundred visions and revisions” just sound nice. It’s a beautifully crafted poem.

It starts off by including the reader in the song. “Let us go then, you and I” suggests that the speaker and the reader will travel together. This isn’t a story or an argument, it’s a journey that everyone takes. I think that instinctively appeals to a lot of people. Helps to make it universal.

Eliot also throws in a lot of references to everyday life. “Measured out my life with coffee spoons” brings to mind someone drinking coffee every morning without fail; something a lot of people do. Or references to scenes like “restless night in one-night cheap hotels” isn’t too unfamiliar to most audiences. Then there’s the mentioning of growing old and bald, a knowledge that is very real for everyone.

Then there is my suspicion that this poem was partially written for its audience, that is, readers. When Prufrock exclaims “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be” any reader can identify with that. If you think you are meant to be a Hamlet, then you probably don’t spend your free time reading poetry. If these people are anything like me, they also spend time thinking that they “should have been a pair of ragged claws.” Readers are usually shy, quiet people who easily identify with Prufrock’s plight. Of course, this also is associated a lot with women for Prufrock, but if you are a generally quiet person, the opposite gender probably makes you nervous as well. And the continual thoughts about what other people think about you such as “they will say…” is a sensation that is very familiar to me, at least. Eliot himself was a reader, and I think that helps this poem's appeal for people like him.

And finally this poem is about a generally universal fear. The fear of dying and not feeling fulfilled, having missed every opportunity that came your way because you were too scared and thought that there would be time for that later. “That overwhelming question” that secretly scares us all, to the extent that hardly anyone talks about it. We are so scared of getting it wrong, of people misinterpreting us and leaving us saying “that is not it at all” that no one takes that risk. Everyone thinks that there is time to “descend the stair” but there really isn’t.

I could go on and on about this poem, I really could. But I’m just going to leave this opener here for now, maybe I’ll tackle a different aspect of it (“that overwhelming question” maybe... or not) later.