Sum of Parts in The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock Anonymous

And would it have been worth it, after all

After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,

Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,

Would it have been worth while

To have bitten off the matter with a smile,

To have squeezed the universe into a ball

To roll it toward some overwhelming question,

To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,

Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all-"

If one, settling a pillow by her head,

Should say: "That is not what I meant at all

That is not it, at all."

These twelve lines capture the essence of all that is phenomenal about the poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and the author T.S.Eliot. In these lines we see the carefully chosen allusions, repetition, lyricism, and maintenance of ambiguity that distinguishes Eliot from other modernist poets. In addition, the way in which these lines are written leads to a greater understanding of the speaker. This brings the reader closer to his objective: understanding and heeding the warning of Prufrock by not following his example.

Like most Eliot poems The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock is a collection of smaller, solitary images. When viewed on a larger scale it is Eliot's craft that makes these smaller parts into a dynamic and...