{"id":1145,"date":"2014-08-15T21:49:04","date_gmt":"2014-08-15T21:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/?post_type=chapter&p=1145"},"modified":"2019-07-08T15:40:56","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T15:40:56","slug":"love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/englishliterature\/chapter\/love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock\/","title":{"raw":"Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock","rendered":"Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"},"content":{"raw":"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock from Bartleby<\/a>\r\n
\r\n

Explanatory Notes not covered in Bartleby<\/h1>\r\nTitle: By identifying himself, rather pompously, by his first initial and middle name, J. Alfred Prufrock seems an unlikely romantic hero, capable of singing a love song.Introduction: The epigram is from Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/em>. The speaker is one Guido da Montafeltro, burning in Hell for crimes committed on Earth. Dante asks about the crimes. Guido\u2019s response is the epigram, translated as \u201cIf I thought that my reply would be to one who would ever return to the world, this flame would stay, without further movement. But since no one has ever returned alive from this depth, if what I hear is true, without fear of infamy I respond to you.\" Line 1: The identity of \u201cyou and I\u201d shifts throughout the poem. Here Prufrock seems to be alone and talking to himself. Later the \u201cyou\u201d is the woman he wants to seduce, possibly propose to. Line 14: The great Italian sculptor and painter (1475 \u2013 1564). His accomplishments and the women\u2019s interest in him shake Prufrock\u2019s already fragile self-confidence.Line 22: The fog suggests that the poem\u2019s setting is London,\u00a0but Eliot wrote the poem a few years before he moved to London. The setting is likely Eliot\u2019s home town of St. Louis, where there was a furniture store called Prufrock-Litton Company, or Boston, near Harvard, where he was a student, when he wrote the poem.\r\n\r\nLine 29: The eighth century B.C.E. Greek poet Hesiod\u2019s poem \u201cWorks and Days\u201d is about the pleasures and accomplishments of farm labour. Eliot, ironically, applies it to the stress of social intercourse.\r\n\r\nLine 52: This echoes a line from Shakespeare\u2019s play Twelfth Night<\/em>, when Duke Orsino asks his musicians to repeat a strain of music because \u201cit had a dying fall\u201d (1.1.4).\r\n\r\nLine 74: Life is so much easier for a crab at the bottom of the ocean than for a man in the throes of a mid-life crisis.\r\n\r\nLine 83: The reference is to John the Baptist. According to the account in the Gospel of Mark, John baptized Jesus in the River Jordan. Later John condemned Herod, the King of Galilee, for his incestuous marriage to Herodias, a violation of Old Testament law. Herod imprisoned John. Some days later, Herodias\u2019 daughter Salome (from her first marriage to Herod\u2019s brother) dances before Herod. He enjoys the performance so much, he tells Salome he will grant her a wish. Herodias tells her to bring her the head of John the Baptist, which he orders done, and the head delivered to Salome on a platter.\r\n\r\nLine 92: Echoes a line from Andrew Marvell\u2019s 1650\u2019s poem \u201cTo His Coy Mistress,\u201d wherein the narrator implores his love interest to enjoy with him the pleasure of the flesh. Marvell\u2019s narrator\u2019s direct and confident approach to asking \u201cthe overwhelming question\u201d is an ironic contrast to Prufrock\u2019s hesitant insecurity. Line 23 also echoes the Marvell poem.\r\n\r\nLine 94: Whom Jesus restored to life, as described in the Gospel of John.\r\n\r\nLine 111: Prince of Denmark, tragic hero in play by Shakespeare.\r\n\r\nLine 113: A royal tour.\r\n\r\nLine 117: Suggests that Prufrock identifies more closely with Polonius, often fatuous advisor to Claudius, the King of Denmark and Hamlet\u2019s uncle. Like Hamlet, though, Prufrock is not decisive. \u201cFull of high sentence\u201d means opinionated; sententious.\r\n\r\nLine 122: Presumably because it might cause flatulence and embarrass him.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n ","rendered":"

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock from Bartleby<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Explanatory Notes not covered in Bartleby<\/h1>\n

Title: By identifying himself, rather pompously, by his first initial and middle name, J. Alfred Prufrock seems an unlikely romantic hero, capable of singing a love song.Introduction: The epigram is from Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/em>. The speaker is one Guido da Montafeltro, burning in Hell for crimes committed on Earth. Dante asks about the crimes. Guido\u2019s response is the epigram, translated as \u201cIf I thought that my reply would be to one who would ever return to the world, this flame would stay, without further movement. But since no one has ever returned alive from this depth, if what I hear is true, without fear of infamy I respond to you.” Line 1: The identity of \u201cyou and I\u201d shifts throughout the poem. Here Prufrock seems to be alone and talking to himself. Later the \u201cyou\u201d is the woman he wants to seduce, possibly propose to. Line 14: The great Italian sculptor and painter (1475 \u2013 1564). His accomplishments and the women\u2019s interest in him shake Prufrock\u2019s already fragile self-confidence.Line 22: The fog suggests that the poem\u2019s setting is London,\u00a0but Eliot wrote the poem a few years before he moved to London. The setting is likely Eliot\u2019s home town of St. Louis, where there was a furniture store called Prufrock-Litton Company, or Boston, near Harvard, where he was a student, when he wrote the poem.<\/p>\n

Line 29: The eighth century B.C.E. Greek poet Hesiod\u2019s poem \u201cWorks and Days\u201d is about the pleasures and accomplishments of farm labour. Eliot, ironically, applies it to the stress of social intercourse.<\/p>\n

Line 52: This echoes a line from Shakespeare\u2019s play Twelfth Night<\/em>, when Duke Orsino asks his musicians to repeat a strain of music because \u201cit had a dying fall\u201d (1.1.4).<\/p>\n

Line 74: Life is so much easier for a crab at the bottom of the ocean than for a man in the throes of a mid-life crisis.<\/p>\n

Line 83: The reference is to John the Baptist. According to the account in the Gospel of Mark, John baptized Jesus in the River Jordan. Later John condemned Herod, the King of Galilee, for his incestuous marriage to Herodias, a violation of Old Testament law. Herod imprisoned John. Some days later, Herodias\u2019 daughter Salome (from her first marriage to Herod\u2019s brother) dances before Herod. He enjoys the performance so much, he tells Salome he will grant her a wish. Herodias tells her to bring her the head of John the Baptist, which he orders done, and the head delivered to Salome on a platter.<\/p>\n

Line 92: Echoes a line from Andrew Marvell\u2019s 1650\u2019s poem \u201cTo His Coy Mistress,\u201d wherein the narrator implores his love interest to enjoy with him the pleasure of the flesh. Marvell\u2019s narrator\u2019s direct and confident approach to asking \u201cthe overwhelming question\u201d is an ironic contrast to Prufrock\u2019s hesitant insecurity. Line 23 also echoes the Marvell poem.<\/p>\n

Line 94: Whom Jesus restored to life, as described in the Gospel of John.<\/p>\n

Line 111: Prince of Denmark, tragic hero in play by Shakespeare.<\/p>\n

Line 113: A royal tour.<\/p>\n

Line 117: Suggests that Prufrock identifies more closely with Polonius, often fatuous advisor to Claudius, the King of Denmark and Hamlet\u2019s uncle. Like Hamlet, though, Prufrock is not decisive. \u201cFull of high sentence\u201d means opinionated; sententious.<\/p>\n

Line 122: Presumably because it might cause flatulence and embarrass him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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