Explication_Of_“The_Love_Song_Of_J._Alfred_Prufrock

Explication Of “The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock The heart-breaking monologue of a depressed and insecure man who craves affection, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” by T.S. Eliot, is an eloquent and imaginative poem. Too insecure to act upon his desires, Prufrock, fantasizes about making a personal connection with a woman. His fear of scrutiny and rejection, however cause even his fantasy to be a disappointment. By contrasting images of loneliness metaphors for affection and attention with allusions pertaining to death, Prufrock reveals his torturous dilemma. Throughout the poem, Eliot uses metaphors to describe Prufrock’s fears and desires. T.S. Eliot used the term objective correlative to describe the projection of tone onto inanimate objects. He begins the poem by describing the evening as, “spread out against the sky/ Like a patient etherized upon a table.” This simile indicates the numbness and immobility that Prufrock is experiencing and shows how he projects his self-pity onto things around him Prufrock then asks the reader to accompany him through a dirty, desolate, and lonely city. Describing, “Streets that follow like a tedious argument/ Of insidious intent” Prufrock reveals the extent of his depression, which is so intense that even walking down the street is a prufrock, poem, prufrock’s, life, eliot, himself, death, upon, story, even, time, love, attention, again, women, woman, ts, sirens, rather, men, however, evening, describing, character, thus, things, song, show, reveals, relationship, out, order, once, man