The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

E21483

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a landmark modernist poem by T. S. Eliot that explores themes of alienation, indecision, and existential anxiety through the interior monologue of its hesitant, self-conscious narrator.


Statements (51)
Predicate Object
instanceOf modernist poem
poem
alludesTo Hamlet
Michelangelo
William Shakespeare
the Bible
alsoKnownAs J. Alfred Prufrock
Prufrock
author T. S. Eliot
countryOfOrigin United States
criticalReputation landmark of literary modernism
epigraphFrom Dante Alighieri
epigraphLanguage Italian
epigraphSourceWork Inferno
famousLine Do I dare disturb the universe?
I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons
In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo
Let us go then, you and I
firstPublicationYear 1915
firstPublishedBy Harriet Monroe
firstPublishedIn Poetry: A Magazine of Verse
firstPublishedInCity Chicago
form free verse
genre lyric poetry
language English
laterCollectionPublicationYear 1917
laterPublishedIn Prufrock and Other Observations
literaryMovement Modernism
meter irregular
narrativeMode dramatic monologue
interior monologue
poet T. S. Eliot
setting drawing rooms
modern city
streets
speaker J. Alfred Prufrock
theme alienation
existential anxiety
inadequacy
indecision
modern urban life
social paralysis
time and aging
unrequited love
usesTechnique fragmentation
imagery
intertextual allusion
irony
stream of consciousness
symbolism

Referenced by (3)

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