The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufock

Question

Hi I was wondering if anybody had any helpful insights, provoking thoughts, or interesting background notes about this poem by T.S. Eliot, Thanks xx

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Here's a classic [url="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5616/prufrock.html"]SITE[/url].

YoHf · Answer

It might be classic, but I found it very useful... <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/2.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/2.gif' alt='Emotion: big smile'/>

MrPedantic · Answer

Hello JLM

Ezra Pound helped Eliot edit the poem down from a longer version. Not all Pound's suggestions were acceptable to Eliot, though; in a letter to Harriet Moore in 1915, Pound says:

"I dislike the paragraph about Hamlet, but it is an early and cherished bit and T.E. won't give it up, and as it is the only portion of the poem that most readers will like at first reading, I don't see that it will do much harm."

There's quite a complicated background to the poem: you can detect the influence of all the fashionable literary studies of the time, including the "metaphysical" poets (e.g. Donne, in the line about the mermaids), Elizabethan and Jacobean drama (in the rhythms and syntax of the verse), and French poets such as Laforgue and Corbière (in the tone and attitude). If you read a few poems by 1890s poets such as Arthur Symons and Ernest Dowson, you'll find some similarities of diction and imagery (though doubtless ironic on Eliot's part).

That said, I don't think it's at all necessary to know the background to understand the poem...

MrP

Anonymous · Answer

Nice done... Couldn't have said it better myself...

Anonymous · Answer

i really want some info. on french poets. somebody help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i ve got a project due to next monday

in maltese preferabbly since i m from malta and it is a maltese project.

10x a bunch

Anonimo

Pieanne · Answer

Have you tried google, Anon?  <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

MrPedantic · Answer

Anonymousi really want some info. on french poets. somebody help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i ve got a project due to next monday in maltese preferabbly since i m from malta and it is a maltese project.

10x a bunch

Anonimo

Any French poets in particular, Anon?

There are a lot of them...

MrP

The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufock

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