![]() ![]() The girls who ignored him appear to be mermaids now. His mood changes to one of a vision or a dream. The ageing Prufrock stands on the seashore with a yearning tinged with melancholy, watching the girls who don’t even notice him. This description would fit the typical fashionable youngster of his age. He should then walk to the beach swiftly, wearing his woolen clothes, to indulge in romantic dreams. And Prufrock has his own doubt whether he will have the courage to set aside his sense of decorum and his ideal of a gentleman and eat a fruit while walking. The next step would be to eat a fruit, the peach, while walking. He wonders whether he should wear his hair parted behind like a daring young bohemian in that age. Prufrock becomes self conscious about his growing age and wants to sport a youthful look by wearing his trousers cuffed, a turned-up fold at the bottom of the pant leg. So the poem seems to be about the possible consequences if one fails to make good use of time. In line 6l he asks “and how should I presume?” and repeats it in line 68 as “How should I then presume?” Soon comes in its trail “and how should I begin?”. The purpose is to emphasize the fact that time seems ample only when proper use is made of it and Prufrock has not done so. Such constant assertions emerge in lines 24-34, when he observes that there is time to “meet faces”, “murder and create”, have a “hundred indecisions” and a “hundred visions and revisions”. Prufrock’s disappointment with life appears through his repeated statements of time. He avows that he was aware of “the eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase” and had seen the “arms that are braceleted and white and bare”. ![]() Similar declarations occur in the poem quite often. This passage gives the impression that Prufrock feels helpless and hopeless, as if life has nothing positive to offer. I have measured out my life with coffee spoons Have known the evening, nothings, afternoons “For I have known them already, known them all:. The reader feels that the aging Prufrock, if given another chance, may tackle the problem differently. The prominent feelings revealed in the poem are Prufrock’s agitation and his feelings of having frittered away all his time. It focuses on a woman’s love for a man, which Prufrock is unable to secure in life. The poem also contains features of most love songs, like repetition, rhyme and rhythm. “The Love Song” is no doubt a descriptive poem, dealing with a moment in the life of Prufrock, the character in the title. The words ‘Love Song’, besides referring to a song on love, are also used to mean a narrative poem. He tries to progress in life but his timid nature and fear of defeat prevents him from taking risks and getting into action. His world is one that has no change or variety and hence monotonous. He is not spirited enough to take opportunity by the forelocks and consequently he is unable to take risks especially where women are concerned. Prufrock himself is responsible for this boredom because he has a complex which makes him regret his own inadequacy, and his indecisive nature, which is frightened of making decisions. He presents his views about the dull, boring mediocre life he has been leading. But he knows life too well to approach the lady openly. ![]() Prufrock seems to be speaking with a friend with whom he wishes to share his mental agony involved when he attempts to confess his love, bring the “moment to a crisis”. It is a discussion on the tortured psyche of the typical modern man of Eliot’s days who is generally educated, neurotic and emotionally artificial. Alfred Prufrock is a poem about a middle-aged balding man who feels very insecure in life. ![]()
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