So, in short we are in a room with women talking, and they’re discussing very high subjects, one of which might be God and the creation, Renaissance art and making airplanes. If I’ll show you this picture, you’ll probably nod. Okay, so now we expected to be in Hell, right? But instead we’re in a room full of women who must be very cultured, because they talk about Michelangelo, you know, the Italian artist and engineer who painted the Last Judgement and the Creation of Adam. He invites you to make a visit, just like in the Divine Comedy, where Dante is taken to see Hell by the poet Virgil. Well, the poet is not going to tell you what the question is. The argument brings you (= the reader) to the following question that is overwhelming = you can’t get it out of your head. To lead you to an overwhelming question … This refers to the argument which in this case is of “insidious intent.” Insidious means secretly dangerous, and intent = purpose. And an argument is a discussion about a statement that can be right or wrong. Tedious = tiring, something that goes on and on. Streets that follow like a tedious argument In the past you could find that stuff on the floor of pubs. Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotelsĪnd sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: The two meanings introduces the theme of the poem, which is of a man who has retreated from life. But retreat can also mean pulling back from something unpleasant. Retreat = leaving your daily activities, for instance go to a hotel or go into your study to be alone and think. Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, In the past, patients were sedated (= made unconscious) by sniffing ether. The night lies unconscious it is etherized. The opening is one of the most famous images in English literature. When the evening is spread out against the sky Alfred Prufrock will give us the exciting round of Hell and Heaven that Dante gets in his epic poem. He takes us on a trip, similar to the trip that Dante makes led by another poet, Virgil. *Mermaids are those creatures who are half fish and half human, and who can sing beautifully. ![]() The poem’s conclusion is sad: Prufrock has heard the mermaids* singing, but he doesn’t think they will sing to him. Yet he’s painfully aware that he’s missed something, and that there is a better life somewhere. We follow him in his round in the city, going to cocktail parties with beautiful women. And he’s been unable to do something about his life for the xx years that he’s lived because he doesn’t dare. Alfred Prufrock, who is getting older and who isn’t satisfied with his life so far, but he’s unable to do something about it. ![]() More about the epigraph here in this easy explanation. In this passage, a sinner (= someone who did something bad) tells the poet, who is travelling to Hell and back, that he will tell the truth about how he got into hell. He doesn’t know that the poet is just visiting Hell and he will tell his story when he returns to Earth. And as you’ll find out, Mr Prufrock is a really dull type.Īt the top of the poem you will first find six lines taken from Dante from the Divine Comedy. Sounds more like the name of a clerk or a pharmacist. Love Song sounds romantic, doesn’t it? But does the name J. His most famous work is the epic poem “The Waste Land.”įirst of all, the poem’s title is a joke. Eliot was an American writer, educated at Harvard University, who settled in London. Poetry from earlier periods, such as the classical and romantic periods, is usually more formal. And a last modern thing is that some lines are very informal, like conversation. We read about a number of situations, or scenes, and what the purpose is of those we must find out for ourselves. Another thing that is new or “modern” in this poem is that there aren’t any explanations of what’s happening. It doesn’t have a regular rhyme scheme or fixed form. Alfred Prufrock is one of the first modernist poems. In my opinion, you can read this poem every few years and not only find some new things in it, but read it as if it’s completely fresh. Alfred Prufrock is a magnificent poem I’ve read many times and yet it never bores me. ![]() By Jacqueline Schaalje Ana Paula Vargas Maia
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