Prufrock and how should i begin

It is wonderful to share our ordinary with others in the form of our blogs. So keep posting, it is fascinating stuff.

Thank you for visiting, I appreciate your comments. Solitary Walker: All, right, no rolled trousers, I promise! I am so very pleased that you might on occasion choose to walk with me. Friko: we will definitely need the wine, so thank you for offering it, and for being game, as you always are, to keep on. Greetings to Beloved, in return. We miss you both! As to Eliot, how is it that such a very peculiar human being could be such a font of wisdom? David: Oh, I can think of just about a thousand ways I can go wrong, but your support means more than I can say, and I will try my best to live up to it!

Britta: I just loved seeing those swallows. They did seem to me as if poised to go on a visit, but a bit skeptical. It may very well apply to us all, eh? Kerstetter said.

Write about what you love which no doubt, includes the arts , when and as you want. Forget formulas and rules. Someone once told me when I first decided to venture forth, and write in the cyberworld that I needed to create a niche—have my own strap line. I fought that at first. I still do, yet I think we all bloggers end up creating some kind of niche. My mind numbs. In any event, to me, blogging is not about building readership or selling.

It is to fill hearts and minds. As you, dear Susan, do. You have so much to offer with your thinking in all areas Susan. Eliot have already left behind well-known memory tracks: their famous tag lines April is the cruelest month The Waste Land I grow old.

Late in the poem, before the memory-tracks Vendler quotes, Prufrock sums up his life: No! Eliot reading The Love Song of J. Share this: Facebook Twitter Email Print. Like this: Like Loading Oh, would that we could have responded as the Edu-Mate!

Follow Following. Prufrock's Dilemma Join other followers. Allusion , The Women. Michelangelo lines : Eliot borrowed most of this line from the Uruguayan-born French poet Jules LaForgue Here is the loose translation: In the room the women go and come while speaking of the Siennese painting masters.

Michelangelo : Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , Renaissance sculptor, painter, and architect and one of the greatest artists in history. Peter's Basilica, also in Vatican City.

The haze is like a quiet, timid cat padding to and fro, rubbing its head on objects, licking its tongue, and curling up to sleep after allowing soot to fall upon it. The speaker resembles the cat as he looks into windows or into "the room," trying to decide whether to enter and become part of the activity. Eventually, he curls up in the safety and security of his own soft arms — alone, separate.

What this stanza means is that Prufrock feels inferior and is unable to act decisively. He consigns himself to corners, as a timid person might at a dance; stands idly by doing nothing, as does a stagnant pool; and becomes the brunt of ridicule or condescension the soot that falls on him. There will be time to decide and then to act — time to put on the right face and demeanor to meet people. There will be time to kill and time to act; in fact, there will be time to do many things.

There will even be time to think about doing things — time to dream and then revise those dreams — before sitting down with a woman to take toast and tea. Allusion, there will be time line 23 : This phrase alludes to the opening line of "To His Coy Mistress," by Andrew Marvell : "Had we but world enough, and time. Allusion, works and days line 29 : Works and Days is a long poem by Hesiod, a Greek writer who lived in the 's B.

The poem, addressed to Hesiod's brother, was intended to instruct readers, stressing the importance of hard work and right living and condemning moral decay. In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. He feels like turning back. After all, he has a bald spot, thinning hair, and thin arms and legs.

Moreover, he has doubts about the acceptability of his clothing. What will people think of him? Does he dare to approach a woman? He will think about it and make a decision, then reverse the decision. So how should I presume? They all even sound the same. So why should he do anything? Evenings, Mornings, Afternoons : This phrase, as well as others focusing on time, refers obliquely to the philosophy of Henri Bergson , author of a revolutionary and highly influential work, Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness.

In this work, he argued that the mind perceives time as a continuous process, a continuous flow, rather than as a series of measurable units as tracked by a clock or a calendar or by scientific calculation. It is not a succession, with one unit following another, but a duration in which present and past are equally real. Ordinarily, we think of a day as consisting of morning, evening, and afternoon — in that order.

But, since time is a continuous flow to Prufrock, it is just as correct to think of a day as consisting of morning, afternoon, and evening as a single unit. Allusion , dying fall line 52 : Phrase borrowed from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Here is the passage in which the phrase appears: If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! How will he be able to explain himself to them — the ordinariness, the mediocrity, of his life?

Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume? And how should I begin? Why is he thinking about them? Perhaps it is the smell of a woman's perfume. Arms that lie along table line 67 : This phrase echoes line 3. I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. He should have been nothing more than crab claws in the depths of the silent ocean.

Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? Should the speaker sit down with someone and have dessert — should he take a chance, make an acquaintance, live? Oh, he has suffered; he has even imagined his head being brought in on a platter, like the head of John the Baptist. Of course, unlike John, he is no prophet. He has seen his opportunities pass and even seen death up close, holding his coat, snickering.

He has been afraid. Allusion, head brought in upon a platter line 82 : Phrase associated with John the Baptist, Jewish prophet of the First Century AD who urged people to reform their lives and who prepared the way for the coming of Jesus as the Messiah.

In retaliation, Herod Antipas imprisoned John but was afraid to kill him because of his popularity with the people. Salome, the daughter of Herodias and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas, danced at a birthday party for Herod Antipas.

Her performance was so enthralling that Herod said she could have any reward of her choice. Prompted by Herodias, who was outraged by John the Baptist's condemnation of her marriage, Salome asked for the head of the Baptist on a platter.

Because he did not want to go back on his word, Herod fulfilled her request. John was a cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Footman line 85 : Servant in a uniform who opens doors, waits on tables, helps people into carriages. Materials for Teachers Teach This Poem. Poems for Kids. Poetry for Teens. Lesson Plans. Resources for Teachers. Academy of American Poets. American Poets Magazine.

Poems Find and share the perfect poems. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. I do not think that they will sing to me. Published in This poem is in the public domain. La Figlia Che Piange O quam te memorem virgo Stand on the highest pavement of the stair— Lean on a garden urn— Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair— Clasp your flowers to you with a pained surprise— Fling them to the ground and turn With a fugitive resentment in your eyes: But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair.

So I would have had him leave, So I would have had her stand and grieve, So he would have left As the soul leaves the body torn and bruised, As the mind deserts the body it has used. I should find Some way incomparably light and deft, Some way we both should understand, Simple and faithless as a smile and shake of the hand.

She turned away, but with the autumn weather Compelled my imagination many days, Many days and many hours: Her hair over her arms and her arms full of flowers. And I wonder how they should have been together! I should have lost a gesture and a pose.

Sometimes these cogitations still amaze The troubled midnight and the noon's repose. Eliot Portrait of a Lady Thou hast committed— Fornication: but that was in another country, And besides, the wench is dead. The Jew of Malta. I Among the smoke and fog of a December afternoon You have the scene arrange itself—as it will seem to do— With "I have saved this afternoon for you"; And four wax candles in the darkened room, Four rings of light upon the ceiling overhead, An atmosphere of Juliet's tomb Prepared for all the things to be said, or left unsaid.

Hysteria As she laughed I was aware of becoming involved in her laughter and being part of it, until her teeth were only accidental stars with a talent for squad-drill. Academy of American Poets Educator Newsletter. Teach This Poem. Follow Us. Find Poets. Poetry Near You. Jobs for Poets. Read Stanza. Privacy Policy. Press Center. First Book Award.