The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S.Elliot 

Initial Response:

To me the poem comes across as melancholic yet humorous through its own self pity. I say this as the poem appears to be a man debating what his life is worth furthermore was it even worth talking about to another. The narrative moves from the present moment to almost a prediction of what the future may be. All the time Elliot is using phrases like '(They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!")' This communicates an anxiety within the narrators voice but also carries humour along with it in a tragic way. 

Elliot's use of imagery within the writing helped me picture the words he wrote. This then immediately creates more meaning. Such as 'I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas...' This imediately made me think of a crab, I find this quite a heartbreaking thing to say as to me it seams Elliot is writing that he means so little to the people around him and that he is a waste. 

I like this poem. I think it captures how an isolated person may think and feel about them self. 

	Here is an english translation of the lantin phrase that appears before the poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: Latin S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
	A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
	Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
	Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
	Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
	Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.

English Translation

'If I but thought that my response were made

to one perhaps returning to the world,

this tongue of flame would cease to flicker.

But since, up from these depths, no one has yet

returned alive, if what I hear is true,

I answer without fear of being shamed'

It was translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander. Princeton Dante Project. (accessed November 3, 2011)