The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock

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"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," is one of Eliot's earliest poem's that was completed in 1911 but not published until 1915, in the years before the start of World War I. The author set's the speaker, "Prufrock," in a poetic form of a dramatic monolauge, by having the speaker address another person, who is believed to be a potential lover, and the reader plays a part of a silent listener. At this point in time Britain was viewed as one of the most modernized countries in the world. The unpleasant modern world is where "Prufrock" begins. His hell is on earth in a lonely, alientating city where he expresses his thoughts about the dull, uneventful life he leads as a result of feeling undesired. While he is unable to live and take opportunities as they arise he lives each and every day the same as yesterday. Although he tries to make progress he ultimitely is too afraid of failure to ever make his mark. "A Long Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," is a poem of one man's frustrated search to find the meaning of his existence and why he is only left with loneliness, alienation, indecision, inadequacy and lack of love. The poem begins with the speaker inviting the listener to walk with him into the streets on an evening that is lifeless, lonely and listless, "Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, [t]he muttering retreats[.] Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels." (Line 4) Usually when someone's asks their lover on a stroll they take them somewhere romantic, instead Prufrock take's the listener on a deserted street where individuals mutter to themselves. The shabby establishments remind the speaker of his life failures, which keeps him moving on with a sense of inadequacy. With this, the reader can portray his feelings through the imagery of the broken down city, which are symbolic of his life and why he hasn't acted upon his wants, needs and desires of a
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