“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock1” – T. S.

Eliot

S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse

a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza piii scosse.
Ma per cio cche giammai di questo fondo
non torno vivo alcun, s'i'odo il vero,
senza tenia d'infamia ti rispondo,2

Dante itself is a character in that work in these its hell heaven purgatory.So that man is supposed

to telling about his poorer lifeto dante.And he says that I m telling you these things because I believe that
you will never return to worth alive.Those of you people who go to hell heaven or purgatory do not go back
to hell.So he says that’s the why Im telling these to you.But not going back to life, is the hopelessness that is
conveyed through this part,quotatiton.And remember that we said T.S. Eliot uses many allusions to
text,intertextual references to different texts.And this one is example to that.So he gives a reference to
Dante.And it is in italien in a foreign language.That is also important because we know that he is an elitist
writer ,intellectual writer .He is not expecting to reader tobe able to understand that.So he is alienating? Bu
böyle yazılmıyorduda siz anladınız .)us.He is making us feel foreign.So You see there are no clearly set out
statements in the poem.It presents an anti romantic picture .It is unpoetical.

We had ‘I’’ for created persona.We have’’ I’’and ‘’You’’. I ; we believe is Alfred Prufrock but
you is not certain.I mean; Is he accompanied by someone,is he speaking to a someone?It is
ambigious.There is ambiguity,uncertainity in this poem about that.So The poem start by an
imitation like expression;

Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky;Evening is likened to a
patient etherised upon a table.This is another simile but İt is
unsual simile.
Like a patient etherised 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.(sawdust =talaş) On the
floors of restaurants in some places they put sawdust.So that
when something get spilled it easily ….. it up.And also it should be
easy for the workers in the restaurant to move boxes that are
very heavy like boxes of beers for instance or to carry people to
drift people when they pass out because they drank so much you
know.Oyster shells; Rich people eat oyster.so this is a urban
place.
Streets that follow like a tedious argument: Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question . . .There is a simile here
again.Street are likened to a tedious an argument of insidious
intent.If you take a look at Julian Peter’s comics you will see how
he depicts those streets like a corridor of the mind which lead to
you to an overwhelming question.So that concrete visual imagery
is important.So we see how concrete and figurative mixed in this
work.
Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?(İt is an ambigious question.It does not
specify anything, does not refer to a specific thing.It is a general
question.I mean it can be apply many different things but at the
same time as far as I know it is the central question,What; is the
key question in philosophy.So this is a very overwhelming
question. I mean we don’t want to hear it,answer it.It requires
quite a lots of thinking and it exhausts you. So he is avoiding the
meaning of life because he says do not as what is it.He says ; For
god sake dont ask such questions and let us make our social
visit.He wants to escape from such questions.He doesn’t want to
go somewhere either but he does not have many options.And in
this first part we see the description and the portray of the
modern city life.Like restaurants,hotels,
Let us go and make our visit.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo. (Buraya kadar okudu ve dediki;When I said
fragmentation when I said discontinuity I was meaning this )What
was he saying in first part and then there is a space all of a
sudden odaya gelip giden kadınları falan anlatmaya başladı.So
there is fragmentation.So for this part a critic says I will read to
you;This part seems like a verse-paragraph and it is almost a
sonnet.This part has 14 lines you see.It is almost a sonnet but of
course not in the traditional sense.Remember this is a modernist
work.It has included many different things.It uses
symbolysim,imagery,metaphors,conceits,paradoxes,17th century
tradition of at the beginning poetry.It has many influences on it.
And it intentionally mixes everything.I will read you a critic’s
comment about this part;
He says ;
(This opening verse-paragraph takes shape as an almost-sonnet,
with fourteen lines, in [almost] rhymed couplets.) But where in it
exactly is Prufrock (if it is Prufrock speaking)? Well, he is on some
street in the less reputable section of some city (St. Louis?).Is this
city london or St louis we dont know okay. . And yet he is also
very much inside his own mind. The mind is deadened, like an
etherized patient; his description of the sky reflects his own
consciousness. The avenues in which he is lost are not (only)
streets, but corridors of the mind, which he wanders hopelessly—
streets that represent the “overwhelming question” which can
only be located within him. Of course, in some sense our
existence does take place within our own minds, where we
experience it. This poem dramatizes that phenomenological
insight. In terms of its figures, what it constructs is a cityscape;
but this is an (incomplete) image for the interior mind. The
figures in the poem point back to, implicitly represent, a state of
consciousness.
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,(What rubs it
back?A cat right.)
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes.
(Muzzle:mouth)You know cats always rubs their mouth.
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,(leap=jump)
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.He is talking about the
fog in a very elobarate metaphor.I mean he is creating concrete
imagery.This is like london.İsnt it? You know it is characterized by
its fog.So maybe this is london.Pay attention to the
colours.Dominant colours are Yellow,gray,black.And these colours
are usually associated with bordom,decay, death, disease and
insanity.Especially yellow specificly in modern literature
represents madness and insanity.There is a short story for
instance the yellow wallpaper.Yazarını hatırlamıyor.But it’s a
female author.In that short story for instance it is a modernist
work again.The yellow wallpaper on the wall represents the
women’s madness so similarly perhaps we have suggestions of
implications of insanity death disease decay suffering autumn
right?So autumn yellow is also related to autumn in terms of
season.There is a urban literature here.The city is black and
yellow.And this colours also symbolize the city.And nothing is
quite certain we’re just making implications here.
And indeed there will be time = (
and this is according to the norton
anthology is a reference to the To His Coy Mistress,” by Andrew Marvell
from the 17th century.It is a poem of carpe diem.Of course it is modified
here,changed here.So there is a allusion to To His Coy Mistress,” by
Andrew Marvell.
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time =There are repetitions and
refrains(nakaratlar many times in the poem.Perhaps he is making
fun of songs.In songs we have repetition and refrains.So he
imitates that style.But those repetitions at the same time give us
the feeling of the mind telling us things over and over.He is
obsessed with certain sentences.
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,what does he mean?both j
uxtaposition and at the same time it is uncertain,ambigious he
does not specify.
And time for all the works and days of hands =
According to northon
anthology there is a reference to this is an allusion to Hesiod the
greek poet to his work ‘’works and days’’. Works and Days is a
poem about the farming year by the Greek poet Hesiod (8th
century B.C.E.) . Eliot contrasts useful agricultural labor with the
futile "works and days of hands " engaged in meaningless social
gesturing.Ancak Eliot bu göndermeyi ne maksatla yapıyor.O
zamanlarda eser milattan önce yazılmış. O zamnalarda günlerce
yapılan iş anlamlıydı sonunda bir product vardı verim alınıyordu
kıtlık yoktu.Ama modern hayatta Ts eliot’a göre works and days
of hands hiçbir şey üretmiyor. Dil bilimcilere sorsanız işte anlam
üretiyor derler ama elle tutulur concrete bir verim yok. Günümüz
modern zamanında kullanılan ellerle o agricultural life ta
nostalgic pastta kullanılan eler aynı şeyi üretmiyor.Buna
gönderme yapıyor.
So he also continues with the same metaphor he elaborates on
it.He says entire of all the works and days of hands ;
That lift and drop a question on your plate;So he believes that they
…..having a conversation with a person that person spends
gestures,mimics,body language can drop a question on your
plate.Again figuratively speaking.All of a sudden someone can ask
you a question that you need to answer.And remember he does
not like questions.
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.=this is the refrain part of the poem.It is
repeated twice in this work.And these women are probably where
he is.He is thinking, he is inside his mind when this happens.All of
a sudden he realizes that women come into room and they talk of
michelangelo.Perhaps these women are looking at a painting of or
a work by Michelangelo.And they are commenting on it.But this is
at the same time you know perhaps debasing culture,culture is
being debased because this is just an ordinary talk between
women.Perhaps there is a suggestion of that at the same time.
And indeed there will be time=this is another repetition
To wonder, 'Do I dare?' and, 'Do I dare?'=Do I dare to do what?Its not
open,not clear but this question suggests his inaction and
indecisiveness just like Hamlet by shakespeare. And these
repititions ideally(kendi çıakrımıymış) are just echos in his
mind.His mind constantly brings him those sentences .He is
haunted by certain ideas certain questions.It is his mind
repeatingly.
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—
(They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!')=He is imagining what
other people might say.
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—
(They will say: 'But how his arms and legs are thin!')
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?=Doing a simple act you know like ringing a
bell of a door for instance is like disturbing to universe for him.He
exaggerates every single action in his mind.
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.=There is no
time in that there will be death.In a minute everything can change
which suggests death.The word reverse is imortant here.Her şey
tam tersine dönebilir tepe taklak olabilir.Yani ölebilirim yani
zamanım olmayabilir hiç bir şeye.Bir bakmışın zamanın var bir
bakmışın her şey tersine dönmüş.