This much discussed poem by Eliot is profound in its attempts to convey the ineffable. Although somewhat incomprehensible due to its stream-of-consciousness style, this piece has been embraced the world over. Perhaps this is because it speaks of human emotions as they sometimes are; confounding, illogical, romantic, afflicted and beyond control. The speaker takes his audience on a journey through the mundane avenues, "cheap hotels," and "sawdust restaurants" of his life. These references and others have led some scholars to believe that Eliot expresses a discontent with the entrapment of modernity. The speaker says that he has "measured out my (his) life with coffee spoons;" (line 51). For this reader, what is conveyed through the poem is a profound sense of helplessness in the throes of natural impulses which must be experienced from within a world of social obligations, and these social expectations make the longing that much worse. The speaker seems beyond the drama of being tormented by his emotions and into a phase of surrender. He makes references to aging with "a bald spot in the middle of my hair-" (line 39). This talk of aging indicates that the object of the speaker's longing may be further and further out of reach. The longing, the helplessness, the emasculation all seem to be directed towards a particular woman; she with "Arms that are braceleted and white and bare" (Line 63). The speaker (perhaps Prufrock) indicates that he is unsure as to the cause of his suffering in the following lines "Is it perfume from a dress / That makes me so digress?" (Lines 65-66).
Although the poem contains a loose rhyming scheme, the pace is languid and reads like a long hymn. Also, while the poem conveys feelings of profound longing and discontent, it does so without the quixotic histrionics typical of romantically unrequited poets. The ability of the poem to evoke empathy in readers is largely due to the understated feelings of the writer.
The epilogue offers clues for the solving of this puzzle. The epilogue is a quotation from Dante's "Inferno" which speaks of personal secrets and the conditions under which one might feel free to reveal his/her secrets. The speaker has "some overwhelming question" which he is dying to ask but he is either too insecure or afraid of rejection to do so. The speaker is insecure in his convictions and asks many questions as to whether or not he should perform a number of tasks such as parting his hair or eating a peach. He laments that while he can see the mermaids singing offshore, they will not sing to him. The idea has some importance for the poet; he isolates it in a one-lined stanza which reads "I do not think that they will sing to me" (Line 125). The last lines of the poem all speak of elusive mermaids and echo the previously covered theme of the elusive and inaccessible woman. Overall, the piece is tinged with insanity and contrasts the inner life with the social life outside as in the last stanza;
"We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown."
What is implied is that one may live in a sublime ethereal dream world of beauty until rudely awakened into the institutional realms of human life by the pressing obligations of society.
Overall, for this reader, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" expresses the pangs of being human and with natural longings and wildly motivating impulses with being in human society with its conventions and expectations; a cold, cruel reality.
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