Irony and death in Eliot's "Prufrock"

¶ … Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Author Charles Child Walcutt writes in his work "Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'" that Prufrock is on the verge of proposing to a woman he is going to tea with. This gloomy poem seems far from a poem of marriage and love, even though it is called a "love song." Instead, it seems to be a poem of a man looking back on his life and regretting many of decisions, rather than a story of a young, confident man on the way to propose to the woman he loves. Throughout the poem, Prufrock reflects on his life and the lives of people around him, such as the "lonely men" leaning out of windows watching the world go by. He too is watching his own world go by, and it seems he is not happy with what he sees.

He reflects that he "grows old," and the poem ends on the note that as his life passes; he knows it will come to its inevitable end. A man in love is joyous and sure of himself, rather than frightened and insecure. 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.