Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
.. I grow old...' are the evidence of the impending fear of death. One unusual part of the poem is how Eliot, or Prufrock, puts himself into a role in one of Shakespeare's plays and then admits that he is no Hamlet by saying 'No! I am not the Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be.' Although I am guessing, I feel that Eliot was trying to say that Shakespeare's world and Eliot's twentieth century world were not so different and the modern world may even be simply a continuation of Shakespeare's. This entails that he could become another Hamlet.
Modernism can be defined as the twentieth century's new artistic or literary style made popular by poets such as T.S. Eliot and other artists, poets and writers of the time. The period was full of turmoil as there was the World War in Europe and in the United States there were the early stages of the industrial revolution. This lead to both internal and external commercial control struggles as well as many political expansion attempts. "The period of general neglect of Eliot's poetry was one in which a revolution was occurring in the theory of interpretation. Existentialist, phenomenologist, structuralist, psychoanalytic, feminist, and poststructuralist theories appeared and stimulated dazzling conversations about how texts mean." (Bentley & Brooker, 1990, p. 5)
Modernism emerged in approximately 1914 as a revolt to the 19th century style of literary form. Modernism was...
Similar to the Itlian Renaissance movement's goal of being an intellectually based artistic revival inspired by a study of existing Classical literature and art, modernism was the twentieth century's rival. The movement seemed as though it was based on newer and more traditional forms of social organization. This poem symbolized the Modernism movement because Eliot touched upon the traditional forms of art, literature, social organization.
In conclusion, this report was about the poem called 'Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' by Thomas Sterns Eliot better known as T.S. Eliot. The poem was the lead poem of the book entitled "Prufrock, and other Observations" which was published by the Egoist, Ltd. Of London in 1917. The report tried to give my interpretation of the poem and the impact it had on the 20th century poetry circles. The report also provided a brief insight into the author's life as it pertained to this work. (Bentley & Brooker, 1990)
References
Bentley, Joseph, & Brooker, Jewel Spears (1990). Reading the Waste Land: Modernism and the Limits of Interpretation. Amhearst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Elliot, T.S. (1917). The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Retrieved November 28, 2004, at http://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html
Poem
As attitudes of literacy help students succeed in school, this is an important development to encourage. Thus, students should be encouraged to interpret "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" for themselves, learning that no right or wrong answer exists, and that literature is a conduit through which one can have a personal response. The following lesson plan can stand by itself or follow the teaching of the poem
More a synopsis of emotional entanglement than a treatise on gender or sexuality, T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” encapsulates the ennui and numbness of the modern world. The speaker reveals gender only tacitly, as through two separate mentions of encroaching baldness. The choral incantations of the women who “come and go/ talking of Michelangelo” refer to a bourgeoisie existence and do not reveal gender discrimination (lines
That is not it, at all." (Eliot, 875) In these lines the poet makes a play upon words with the word "all": it is either to know all, or else not to be able to render one's meaning in a work of art. Eliot finds it impossible to actually unveil the mystery and tell all, it is not only that complete knowledge of the universe is impossible, but that the mystery
Prufrock also distances himself from the people at the tea, saying they talk of "Michelangelo," which seems to say he has little in common with them. A man who loves a woman will try to find things in common with her to enjoy her company. This man instead finds things that make them different. Finally, there is an underlying gloomy theme throughout the poem that cannot point to love. Prufrock
Ultimately, as his dialogue continues, it becomes clear that Prufrock is afraid. He is afraid of growing old, of ending up alone, and of being ridiculous and a fool because he did not to back to the woman he loved and make the relationship right. Eliot writes, "At times, indeed, almost ridiculous -- / Almost, at times, the Fool" (Eliot 118-119). Prufrock then is a sad and lonely character
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Eliot, and the Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost are two poems that imagine how life might be if the narrator had acted differently. However, the two poems are almost opposites in their intent and impact. Eliot's poem is a lamentation over a life not lived, over a failure to act. Frost's poem is a celebration over an unconventional life bravely