Topic : The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Main text

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero, Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.   Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question [...]

Key info

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a remarkable modernist poem by Thomas Stearns Eliot. Look at the key facts of the poem to get a quick conception.

• Original Title: Prufrock Among the Women
• Full Title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
• Writer: Thomas Stearns Eliot OM (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965)

Summary

Ostensibly, the poem's title seems to be a love story, but incredibly, it is the story of a modern man's mental conflict. The middle-aged speaker, Prufrock, loves women but fears making his love proposal. He suffers from indecisiveness. 

Indecisive Prucfrock

The poem begins with the description of a dull October evening. Prufrock invites the reader through a modern city of half-deserted streets. He details the city's scenery and finds a gathering of women discussing Michelangelo, an Italian painter, in a hotel. He intends to propose to the lady he loves but abstains from proposing due to his indecisiveness. He compares his proposal to murdering a man, feels he has enough time to propose, and postpones this.