The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The literary work that our class discussed today was "The Love Song J. Alfred Prufrock". This poem can be strongly tied to Bob Dylan's, "Desolation Row" by similar outcast characters, miserable and depressing tones, and message. After seeing the similarities I became equally as intrigued with this poem as I was with Dylan's song. Although the class discussion alluded to the message of both Dylan and Elliot's works being that of: lifelessness is the great sin, I don't know if that is exactly what I think these two speakers are attempting to portray.

While reading "The Love Song" I had a slightly different interpretation than others in the class had.I feel as though the man Prufrock is filled with regret, sexual frustration, awareness of his mortality, ultimately this is an extremely wearisome poem. I would say that the poem is going through a bunch of random thoughts by Prufrock, in no particular chronological order. To me thi man is getting flashbacks from memories in the past and is reliving them while he believes the end of his life is growing closer every day. Although it is never clearly defined as to whom Prufrock is talking to I believe that he is discussing his life with himself. I think that the you and I that he is referring to within the first lines of the poem are the two different versions Prufrock sees of himself. Another aspect of the poem that I disagreed with my peers on is whether or not this man is physically going somewhere. The partners at my table believed that he was describing images so vividly that he must be going for an "afternoon tea", however I believe that he is still going through all these thoughts in his mind, perhaps even a flashback of a moment similar to this. The most significant part of the poem by Elliot is most definitely the "overwhelming question" that is repeatedly mentioned. Although my interpretation may be a little bizarre I feel that the question is Prufrock trying to tell a woman of his romantic interest in her. The entire poem mentions various images of women's arms and clothing. Additionally in the last several lines he claims the mermaid will not sing to him, meaning that this woman that he is pining over will not show interest in him. If this poem was about how lifelessness is the greatest sin then why is it called a love song? That is the one reason why I feel as though it is not the central idea behind the poem.