The Love Song of J.

Alfred
Prufrock
T.S.ELIOT

Popa Andreea-Teodora
Grupa 6
 Fragmentation
• The first characteristic of the poem is the use of
fragmentation.
• The form of the poem is very irregular and
disjointed.
• The stanzas are not equal. These vary with a
measure between 2 and 12 lines.
• The measure of the lines is not equal too.
• The rhyme of this poem is irregular but not
accidental.
• Even if the rhyme of the poem is irregular, if we read aloud
we can notice its musicality.
• In every stanza, there are also a few lines that rhyme with
each other:
“And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
/And for a hundred visions and revisions”

“In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo.”

“Time to turn back and descend the stair,

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair”

• This poem gives the impression of being chaotic, and this

has to do with the way people saw the world at the
beginning of the 18th century.
 Examples of stanza irregularities
“And indeed there will be time

For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,

Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;

There will be time, there will be time

To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;

There will be time to murder and create,

And time for all the works and days of hands

That lift and drop a question on your plate;

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.

In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo.”
 Repetition
• In this poem, we have a lot of repetitions.
• We notice expressions that are repeated inside
the same line as in the following examples:
“There will be time, there will be time”
“I grow old ... I grow old ...”
-Both of them refer to the passage of time.
But, we also notice lines that are repeated in
other stanzas as in the following examples:
• “rubs its back upon the window-panes”- “Rubbing its back
upon the window-panes”

• “(So) how should I presume?” - “(And) how should I

presume?”- We find these questions at the end of stanzas 7
and 8.

• “In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo.”- This stanza is repeated twice in
this poem. The first time, we find it after the first stanza
and the second time after the 4th stanza.

• “And would it have been worth it, after all”- We find this
line both at the beginning of stanza 13 and at the beginning
of stanza 14.
• “Would it have been worth while”- This line is
also repeated in stanza 7 and 8.

• We also see expressions like "you and me" or

"overwhelming question" repeated twice in
the poem.
 The use of language
• From the beginning of the poem, we can see
how the atmosphere is much better outlined
by the use of adjectives.
• Adjectives/epithets such as "half-deserted
(street)", "muttering (retreats)", "one-night
cheap (hotels)", "sawdust (restaurants)",
"tedious (argument)" have the role of
emphasizing the oppressive atmosphere of
loneliness presented in the first stanza.
• By using these adjectives, the atmosphere
becomes more and more oppressive in each
stanza. From the description of the space, we
arrive at a short description of Prufrock.
“My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to
the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a
simple pin
(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are
thin!”)“
• Through verbs, we can see Prufrock's polite and
relatively humble attitude, sometimes even in a
position to ask permission to do something.
“So how should I presume?”
“And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?”