Eliot

I’ve read “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” a few times for various classes and have always thoroughly enjoyed it. Part of the reason that I love it so much is the use of imagery. There are two images that I see in this poem that really stand out.

The first is the foggy cat. In the stanza that begins on line 15, we get the image of the cat. “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes/Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening.” I can’t imagine in my wildest dreams coming up with idea to personify fog as a cat. Funny enough though, it works. I can juxtapose these two images in my mind and it makes sense.

I also love how Eliot gives us a particular image of Mr. Prufrock. I think in every class that I have every read this poem, we have always all described him in the same way. He’s a nervous, middle-aged, balding kind of man. It is almost like I know him personally. I also love the way Eliot sets the tone of the poem with such a silly name.

As far as the articles are concerned, yes, they were a little dry. In general though, I do think it is interesting how Eliot takes such an intellectual approach to poetry. Poetry was something that I always thought of as coming from the heart, as deriving itself from sheer emotions (the good stuff at least). I guess I was wrong…or at least not 100 percent right.