Explanation of the Title

.......T. S. Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) originally entitled this poem "Prufrock Among the Women." He changed
the title to "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" before publishing the poem in Poetry magazine in 1915. 
Love Song 
.......The words "Love Song" seem apt, for one of the definitions of love song is narrative poem. And, of course,
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a narrative, presenting a moment in the life of the title character. It is
also a poem. In addition, the work has characteristics of most love songs, such as repetition (or refrain), rhyme,
and rhythm. It also focuses on the womanly love that eludes Prufrock. 
Origin of the Name Prufrock 
.......Eliot took the last name of the title character from a sign advertising the William Prufrock furniture
company, a business in Eliot's hometown, St. Louis, while he was growing up. The initial J. and
name Alfred are inventions, probably mimicking the way Eliot occasionally signed his name as a young
adult: T. Stearns Eliot. 
Type of Work: Dramatic Monologue
......."The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a modernistic poem in the form of a dramatic monologue. A
dramatic monologue presents a moment in which a narrator/speaker discusses a topic and, in so doing, reveals
his personal feelings to a listener. Only the narrator, talks—hence the term monologue, meaning "single (mono)
discourse (logue)." During his discourse, the speaker intentionally and unintentionally reveals information about
himself. The main focus of a dramatic monologue is this personal information, not the speaker's topic.
Therefore, a dramatic monologue is a type of character study.
Publication
.......Eliot published "Prufrock" in Poetry magazine in 1915 and then in a collection of his poems, Prufrock and
Other Observations, in 1917.
The Speaker/Narrator
.......The poem centers on a balding, insecure middle-aged man. He expresses his thoughts about the dull,
uneventful, mediocre life he leads as a result of his feelings of inadequacy and his fear of making decisions.
Unable to seize opportunities or take risks (especially with women), he lives in a world that is the same today as
it was yesterday and will be the same tomorrow as it is today. He does try to make progress, but his timidity and
fear of failure inhibit him from taking action. 
Setting
.......The action takes place in the evening in a bleak section of a smoky city. This city is probably St. Louis,
where Eliot (1888-1965) grew up. But it could also be London, to which Eliot moved in 1914. However, Eliot
probably intended the setting to be any city anywhere. 
Characters
J. Alfred Prufrock: The speaker/narrator, a timid, overcautious middle-aged man. He escorts his silent listener
through streets in a shabby part of a city, past cheap hotels and restaurants, to a social gathering where women
he would like to meet are conversing. However, he is hesitant to take part in the activity for fear of making a
fool of himself.  
The Listener: An unidentified companion of Prufrock. The listener could also be Prufrock's inner self, one that
prods him but fails to move him to action.  
The Women: Women at a social gathering. Prufrock would like to meet one of them but worries that she will
look down on him.  
The Lonely Men in Shirtsleeves: Leaning out of their windows, they smoke pipes. They are like Prufrock in
that they look upon a scene but do not become part of it. The smoke from their pipes helps form the haze over
the city, the haze that serves as a metaphor for a timid cat—which is Prufrock.
Themes
Loneliness and Alienation: Prufrock is a pathetic man whose anxieties and obsessions have isolated him.  
Indecision: Prufrock resists making decisions for fear that their outcomes will turn out wrong. 
Inadequacy: Prufrock continually worries that he will make a fool of himself and that people will ridicule him
for his clothes, his bald spot, and his overall physical appearance.  
Pessimism: Prufrock sees only the negative side of his own life and the lives of others. 
Style
Conversational Language Combined With the Stylized Language of Poetry. For example, the poem opens
straightforwardly with "Let us go then, you and I." It then presents a bizarre personification/simile with end
rhyme (lines 2 and 3), comparing the evening to an anesthetized hospital patient. End rhyme continues
throughout most of the poem, as does the use of striking figures of speech. The figures of speech generally refer
in some way to Prufrock. The anesthetized hospital patient, for example, represents the indecisiveness of
Prufrock. The yellow fog and yellow smoke of lines 15 and 16 are compared in succeeding lines to a timid cat,
which represents the timidity of Prufrock.  
Variations in Line Length and Meter. Some lines contain only three words. Others contain as many as fourteen.
The meter also varies. 
Shifts in the Train of Thought: The train of thought sometimes shifts abruptly, without transition, apparently in
imitation of the way the human mind works when it dreams or daydreams or reacts to an external stimulus.  
Shifts in Topics Under Discussion: The subject under discussion sometimes shifts abruptly, from trifling
matters one moment—Prufrock's bald spot, for example, or the length of his trousers—to time and the universe
the next.  
Shifts From Abstract to Concrete (and Universal to Particular): The poem frequently toggles between (1) the
abstract or universal and (2) the concrete or specific. Examples of abstract language are muttering retreats (line
5) and tedious argument of insidious intent (lines 8-9). Examples of phrases or clauses with universal nouns
are the muttering retreats and the women come and go. Examples of concrete language are oyster-shells (line
7) and soot (line 19). Examples of particular (specific) language are Michelangelo (line 14) and October (line
21). 
Shifts From Obvious Allusions or References to Oblique Allusions or References: Prufrock quotes, paraphrases,
or cites historical or fictional persons, places, things, or ideas. Some of his references are easy to fathom. For
example, everyone with a modicum of education knows who Michelangelo was (line 14). Other references are
difficult to fathom. For example, few readers realize that To Have Squeezed the Universe into a Ball (line 92) is
a variation of a line written by poet Andrew Marvell (1621-1678). In his use of allusions, Eliot apparently
wanted to show that Prufrock was well read and retained bits and pieces of what he read in his memory, like all
of us. .

Use of Repetition 

.......Eliot repeats certain words and phrases several or many times, apparently to suggest the repetition and
monotony in Prufrock's life. Notice, for example, how often he begins a line with And—20 times. He also
repeats other words as well as phrases and clauses, including the following: 

Let us go 
In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo 
There will be time 
Do I dare 
Should I presume 
I have known 
Would it have been worth it

Figures of Speech: Examples from the Poem

Simile: Lines 2-3

When the evening is spread out against the sky  

Like a patient etherised upon a table 
(Prufrock uses like to compare the evening to a patient)
Personifications, Simile: Lines 8-9
 Streets that follow like a tedious argument 
Of insidious intent 
(Personification 1: Streets become persons because they follow. Personification 2: An argument
becomes a person because it has insidious intent. Simile: Use of like to compare streets to an argument) 
Metaphor: Lines 15-22
Yellow fog and yellow smoke are both compared to a living creature. It is obvious that the creature is a
cat. (It licks its tongue, leaps, and curls up.) /
Metaphor: Line 51
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons 
(Life is compared to coffee.) 
Alliteration
Lines 20-21: Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,  
And seeing that it was a soft October night, 

Line 34: Before the taking of a toast and tea  

Line 56: fix you in a formulated phrase)  
Line 58: When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall 

Metaphor: Line 58
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall 
(Prufrock compares himself to an insect preserved for display in a collection)
Personification/Metaphor: Line 75
And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! 
(Personification: The evening is a sleeping person; Metaphor: The evening is compared to a person.) 
Anaphora (Lines 91-94)
Tohave bitten off the matter with a smile,  
To have squeezed the universe into a ball  
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,  
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead 
(For a definition of anaphora, see Literary Terms.)
Hyperbole and Metaphor: Lines 92-93
To have squeezed the universe into a ball  
To roll it toward some overwhelming question 
(Hyperbole and Metaphor: The universe becomes a ball that is rolled.) 

Stanza Summaries, Annotations, and Explanations of Allusions

Translation of epigraph: If I thought my answer were to one who could return to the world, I would not reply,
but as none ever did return alive from this depth, without fear of infamy I answer thee. The words are spoken by
Count Guido da Montefeltro, a damned soul in the Eighth Circle of Hell in Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno,
Canto 27, lines 61-66.)  
Comment: Eliot opens "The Love Song" with this quotation from Dante's epic poem to suggest that Prufrock,
like Count Guido, is in hell. But Prufrock is in a hell on earth—a hell in the form of a modern, impersonal city
with smoky skies. The quotation also points out that Prufrock, again like Count Guido, can present his feelings
"without fear of infamy."

Stanza 1 
Summary, Interpretation: The speaker invites the listener to walk with him into the streets on an evening that
resembles a patient, anesthetized with ether, lying on the table of a hospital operating room. (Until recent times,
physicians used ether—a liquid obtained by combining sulfuric acid and ethyl alcohol—to render patients
unconscious before an operation.) The imagery suggests that the evening is lifeless and listless. The speaker and
the listener will walk through lonely streets—the business day has ended—past cheap hotels and restaurants
with sawdust on the floors. (Sawdust was used to absorb spilled beverages and food, making it easy to sweep up
at the end of the day.) The shabby establishments will remind the speaker of his own shortcomings, their images
remaining in his mind as he walks on. They will then prod the listener to ask the speaker a question about the
speaker's life—perhaps why he visits these seedy haunts, which are symbols of his life, and why he has not
acted to better himself or to take a wife.  
Allusion, overwhelming question (line 10): Eliot appears to have borrowed this phrase from James Fenimore
Cooper's 1823 novel, The Pioneers, one of five novels that make up The Leatherstocking Tales (1823-1841),
about life on the frontier in early America. When he was a youth, Eliot read and enjoyed The Pioneers. In the
novel, one of the characters, Benjamin, asks a series of questions ending with the "overwhelming question." 
Following is the passage:
.......“Did’ee ever see a British ship, Master Kirby? an English line-of-battle ship, boy? Where did’ee
ever fall in with a regular built vessel, with starn-post and cutwater, gar board-streak and plank-shear,
gangways, and hatchways, and waterways, quarter-deck, and forecastle, ay, and flush-deck?—tell me
that, man, if you can; where away did’ee ever fall in with a full-rigged, regular-built, necked vessel?"  
.......The whole company were a good deal astounded with this overwhelming question, and even
Richard afterward remarked that it “was a thousand pities that Benjamin could not read, or he must have
made a valuable officer to the British marine.

Stanza 2

Summary, Interpretation: At a social gathering in a room, women discuss the great Renaissance artist
Michelangelo. Prufrock may wonder how they could possibly be interested in him when they are discussing
someone as illustrious as Michelango. 
Allusion, The Women . . . Michelangelo (lines 13-14): Eliot borrowed most of this line from the Uruguayan-
born French poet Jules LaForgue (1860-1887). In one of his works, LaForgue wrote (in French): Dans la piece
les femmes vont et viennent / En parlant des maîtresde Sienne. 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 (1475-1564), Renaissance sculptor, painter, and
architect and one of the greatest artists in history. He sculpted the famous David for the Duomo Cathedral in
Florence, painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, and designed the dome of St. Peter's
Basilica, also in Vatican City. 

Stanza 3 
Summary, Interpretation: Smoky haze spreads across the 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). 

Stanza 4 
Summary, Interpretation: There's no hurry, though, the speaker tells himself. 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 (1621-1678): "Had we but world enough, and time." In Marvell's poem, the speaker/persona
urges his beloved not to be coy but instead to seize the moment—to take advantage of youth and "sport us while
we may." Prufrock, of course, continually postpones even meeting a woman, saying "There will be time."  
face (line 27): affectation; façade. 
Allusion, works and days (line 29): Works and Days is a long poem by Hesiod, a Greek writer who lived in the
700's B.C. "Works" refers to farm labor and "Days" to periods of the year for performing certain agricultural
chores. 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.

Stanza 5 
Summary, Interpretation: The women are still coming and going, still talking of Michelangelo, suggesting
that life is repetitive and dull.

Stanza 6
Summary, Interpretation: Prufrock says there will be time to wonder whether he dares to approach a woman.
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.  
simple pin (line 43): Pin inserted through the tie and shirt to hold the tie in place.

Stanza 7
Summary, Interpretation: Prufrock realizes that the people here are the same as the people he has met many
times before—the same, uninteresting people in the same uninteresting world. 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 (1859-1941), 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. Duke Orsino speaks it in line
4 of Act I, Scene I. 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! it had a dying fall: 
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, 
That breathes upon a bank of violets, 
Stealing and giving odour!
Stanza 8 
Summary, Interpretation: He has seen their gazes before, many times—gazes that form an opinion of him,
treating him like a butterfly or another insect pinned into place in a display. How will he be able to explain
himself to them—the ordinariness, the mediocrity, of his life?  
fix (line 56): Evaluate.

Stanza 9 
Summary, Interpretation: Yes, he has known women like these before, wearing jewelry but really bare,
lacking substance. 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. 
should I then presume? (line 68): This clause repeats words in lines 54 and 68. 
how should I begin? (line 69): This clause repeats words in line 59.

Stanza 10 
Summary, Interpretation: Will he tell a woman that he came through narrow streets, where lonely men (like
Prufrock) lean out of windows watching life go by but not taking part in it? He should have been nothing more
than crab claws in the depths of the silent ocean.  
smoke that rises from the pipes (line 71): The smoke becomes part of the haze.

Stanza 11 
Summary, Interpretation: The time passes peacefully. It is as if the afternoon/evening is sleeping or simply
wasting time, stretched out on the floor. 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.  
evening . . . floor (lines 75-78): This metaphor/personification echoes the simile in lines 2 and 3. 
cakes (line 79): Cakes or cookies. 
ices (line 79): Ice cream. 
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. John denounced Herod Antipas (4 BC-AD 39), the Roman-appointed ruler of Galilee and Perea,
for violating the law of Moses by marrying Herodias, the divorced wife of his half-brother, Philip. (Herod
Antipas and Philip were sons of Herod the Great, the Roman-appointed ruler of Judea.) 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. Accounts of his activities appear in the Bible in the gospels of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John and in the Acts of the Apostles. 
prophet (line 83): Another allusion to John the Baptist. 
Footman (line 85): Servant in a uniform who opens doors, waits on tables, helps people into carriages. The
footman is a symbol of death; he helps a person into the afterlife.

Stanza 12 
Summary, Interpretation: Would it have been worth it for the speaker while drinking tea to try to make a
connection with one of the women? Would it have been worth it to arise from his lifeless life and dare to engage
in conversation with a woman, only to have her criticize him or reject him.  
porcelain (line 89): glassware or hard, brittle people  
Allusion, To have squeezed the universe into a ball (line 92): This phrase is another allusion to Marvell's "To
His Coy Mistress." (Click here to see the previous comment on Marvell's poem.) In the last stanza of that poem,
the speaker/persona says, " Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball." In Eliot's poem,
the speaker asks whether it would have been worth it to do the same thing with a woman of his choosing. 
Allusion, Lazarus (line 94): Name of two New Testament figures: (1) Lazarus of Bethany, brother of Martha
and Mary. Jesus raised him from the dead (Gospel of John, Chapter 11: Verses 18, 30, 32, 38); (2) Lazarus, a
leprous beggar (Gospel of Luke, Chapter 16: Verses 19-31). When Lazarus died, he was taken into heaven.
When a rich man named Dives died, he went to hell. He requested that Lazarus be returned to earth to warn his
brothers about the horror of hell, but his request was denied.

Stanza 13 
Summary, Interpretation: Would it have been worth it, considering all the times he would be with the woman
at sunset or with her in a dooryard? Would it have been worth it after all the mornings or evenings when
workmen sprinkled the streets (see sprinkled streets, below), after all the novels he would discuss with her over
tea, after all the times he heard the drag of her skirt along the floor, after so many other occasions? Would it
have been worth it if, after plumping a pillow or throwing off her shawl, she turned casually toward a window
and told him that he was mistaken about her intentions toward him?  
sprinkled streets (line 101): This may be a reference to the practice of wetting dirt streets with oil or water to
control dust. 
magic lantern (line 105): Early type of slide projector. The magic lantern (also called sciopticon) projected an
image from a glass plate.

Stanza 14 
Summary, Interpretation: Prufrock and Hamlet (the protagonist of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark)
are both indecisive. But Prufrock lacks the majesty and charisma of Hamlet. Therefore, he fancies himself as
Polonius, the busybody lord chamberlain in Shakespeare's play. 
Allusion, Prince Hamlet (line 112): Hamlet, the protagonist of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,
famous for his hesitancy and indecision while plotting to avenge the murder of his father, King Hamlet, by the
king's brother, Claudius. Prufrock is like young Hamlet in that the latter is also indecisive. However, Prufrock
decides not to compare himself with Hamlet, who is charismatic and even majestic in spite of his shortcomings.
Instead, Prufrock compares himself with an unimpressive character in the Shakespeare play, an attendant lord,
Polonius. (See next entry.)  
Allusion, attendant lord (line 113): Polonius, the lord chamberlain in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Polonius, a
bootlicking advisor to the new king, Claudius, sometimes uses a whole paragraph of important-sounding words
to say what most other people could say in a simple declarative sentence. His pedantry makes him look foolish
at times. Prufrock, of course, is worried that the words he speaks will make him look foolish, too.  
Allusion, progress (line 114): In the time of a Shakespeare, a journey that a king or queen of England made
with his or her entourage, 
Allusion, high sentence: The high-flown, pretentious language of Polonius (See Allusion, attendant lord, just
above.) 
Allusion, Fool (line 119): Eliot capitalizes this word, suggesting that it refers to a court jester (also called a
fool) in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In the courts of England in Shakespeare's time, a fool was a comic figure
with a quick tongue who entertained the king, the queen, and their guests. He was allowed to—and even
expected to—criticize anyone at court. Many fools were dwarfs or cripples, their odd appearance enhancing
their appeal and, according to prevailing beliefs, bringing good luck to the court.

Stanza 15

Summary, Interpretation: The speaker realizes that time is passing and that he is growing old. However, like
other men going through a middle-age crisis, he considers changing his hairstyle and clothes. Like Odysseus in
the Odyssey, he has heard the song of the sirens. However, they are not singing to him.  
wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled (line 121): look youthful and jaunty. 
Allusion, mermaids (line 124): In Homer's Odyssey, sea nymphs who sit on a shore and sing a song so alluring
that it attracts all passing sailors who hear it. Then the sailors sit on the shore, transfixed by the song, until they
die. But Odysseus plugs the ears of his men with wax, so that they are unable to hear, after ordering them to tie
him to a mast. Thus, as they pass the island, Odysseus himself hears the song but cannot go ashore, though he
wants to, because he cannot break free of his bonds.