I Have Measured Out My Life With Coffee Spoons Prufrock

Poetry can sometimes allow one to explore the unknown. However, in some works of poetry, one can realise that some known ideas or values remain relevant to current society. This is certainly applicable to T.S. Eliot’s poems, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Rhapsody on a Windy Night. Eliot’s manipulation of poetic techniques in both these poems allows the responder to realise that some ideas prevail in both modern and post-modern society. These poems explore the unknown phenomena of the obscurity regarding the purpose and meaning of life. This unknown phenomena causes the persona in both texts to resort to a sense of isolation or alienation. Eliot uses poetic techniques such as metaphors and personification to convey his ideas.

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot is a poem unlike any I have ever read before. The poem starts off with the speaker taking what seems to be a potential lover along for a walk. The speaker first describes their surroundings and says that “the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table” and that “the streets follow like a tedious argument”. The sky is described as someone who has been anesthetized, someone who can’t feel anything. The streets are like an argument, something that can tear two people apart. The similes used make the setting seem dark and dreary. The speaker then brings up that he has a question he wishes to

Throughout “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Eliot illustrates fragmentation by using synecdoche to illustrate his fear of a societal breakdown. Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole; Eliot, through this use of parts in place of wholes, represents Eliot’s view on the broken, chaotic world. Throughout the poem, Eliot uses “faces,” “hands,” “arms,” “chins,” “arms…downed with light brown hair,” “fingers,” and “the head,” yet he never describes a whole human. The central human Prufrock imagines is potentially the woman whom he hopes to talk to that evening. Eliot writes of this mystery woman, “Arms that are braceleted and white and

In T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," the author is establishing the trouble the narrator is having dealing with middle age. Prufrock(the narrator) believes that age is a burden and is deeply troubled by it.. His love of some women cannot be because he feels the prime of his life is over. His preoccupation with the passing of time characterizes the fear of aging he has. The poem deals with the aging and fears associated with it of the narrator. The themes of insecurity and time are concentrated on. This insecurity is definitely a hindrance for him. It holds him back from doing the things he wishes to do. This is the sort of characteristic that makes

In T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (stanza 8), he associates the spoons he uses to measure his coffee every day to the measurement of his life. The narrator says “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons” (line 51). This metaphor connects to the theme of time because the coffee is what he is spending his time alive on. He lives life from one cup of coffee to the next. His life is passing and he is living an isolated and unfulfilling life. He is just existing. There is no sole purpose in his life other than to drink a cup of coffee every afternoon. Perhaps all of this drinking is just a way of passing time and avoiding or forgetting something that he wished to do but

Being the earliest of Eliot's works, it may seem as though the speaker of this poem simply cannot be Eliot for the speaker in the work is an older man, who keeps postponing his female endeavors as "indeed there will be time" (23), which is repeated throughout the poem. However, the feelings described in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" can be linked to Eliot himself and young men alike. The reason Eliot may have chosen to title his poem as he did, in a way that contrasts the content, is that many men encounter these feelings and deal with them in similar ways. Many men feel that showing love and/or emotions, emotional vulnerability, and sensitivity is a

T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a dramatic monologue in which the poet Eliot speaks in the voice of a middle-aged man who is in love with a woman he is afraid does not love him back. Over the course of the poem, Prufrock pines for the woman, even while he satirizes the social circle in which the two of them dwell. The poem is both humorous and tragic. Prufrock sees the absurdity of his condition: "No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; /Am an attendant lord, one that will do /To swell a progress, start a scene or two." However, because Prufrock is able to take such an ironic and detached view of himself and his affection for his unnamed beloved, it is unlikely that Prufrock will ever be able to reveal himself to the woman he loves. [THESIS]. Cowardly and afraid of taking an emotional risk, he hides behind literary references, similes and metaphors.

T. S. Eliot’s main purpose for writing The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is to show the importance of time. Prufrock, the main character and narrator of the story seems to think he has plenty of time to sit around and wait forever to ask, whom we assume is someone he likes, “an overwhelming question (page 2524).” Prufrock seems to be a big procrastinator, and uses the time he should be using to make excuses as to why he shouldn’t rush since he has time later. “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 (page 2525). ”

Eliot begins “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by using an epigram from Dante’s Inferno to set the theme of the poem. By alluding to a story about a journey through Hell, readers can infer that Prufrock will also take readers on a journey through Hell, only this time it is a living hell. Upon examining the first couple of stanzas, it is clear that Prufrock is afraid of living his life, so much so, that time has become illusory to him. Eliot writes, “Time for you and me, and time for a hundred indecisions, and for a hundred visions and revisions, before the taking of a toast and tea” (369). The poetic device of repetition to portray never-ending time proves Prufrock fools himself into believing he has all the time in the

T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an ironic depiction of a man’s inability to take decisive action in a modern society that is void of meaningful human connection. The poem reinforces its central idea through the techniques of fragmentation, and through the use of Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s social world. Using a series of natural images, Eliot uses fragmentation to show Prufrock’s inability to act, as well as his fear of society. Eliot’s commentary about Prufrock’s social world is also evident throughout. At no point in the poem did Prufrock confess his love, even though it is called “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, but through this poem, T.S. Eliot voices his social commentary about the world that

When reading the title of T.S Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” it is believed we are in store for a poem of romance and hope. A song that will inspire embrace and warmth of the heart, regretfully this is could not be further from the truth. This poem takes us into the depths of J. Alfred Prufrock, someone who holds faltering doubt and as a result may never come to understand real love. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” takes us through Prufrock’s mindset and his self-doubting and self-defeating thoughts. With desolate imagery, a tone that is known through the ages and delicate diction we see a man who is insecure, tentative and completely fearful.

In T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," the author is establishing the trouble the narrator is having dealing with middle age. Prufrock(the narrator) believes that age is a burden and is deeply troubled by it.. His love of some women cannot be because he feels the prime of his life is over. His preoccupation with the passing of time characterizes the fear of aging he has. The poem deals with the aging and fears associated with it of the narrator. The themes of insecurity and time are concentrated on. This insecurity is definitely a hindrance for him. It holds him back from doing the things he wishes to do. This is the sort of characteristic that makes Alfred into a tragic,

Eliot is not solely criticising modern life in the poem, it also serves as a reflection of Eliot’s social context and his own life, a product of its time.

Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is written as though Mr. Prufrock is playing a game of tennis through Eliot’s back and forth style. It may be hard to follow, but this unevenness of thought shows how the “Modern Male” thinks. His inability to be decisive illustrates that it is now considered masculine for men to think and feel, rather than just act out before thinking. This belief is a major change from Week 1’s Romanticism era, where men were more focused on action, rather than thoughts and feelings.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is a uniquely styled piece of literature.  In this poem Eliot employs a literary method of writing called "stream of consciousness."  This is a difficult method to grasp outside of the literary genre to attempt to understand it within the context of the higher language of poetry can further confuse readers.