T.S. Eliot

I found T.S. Eliot a little difficult to read due to the way that he phrases his sentences. This is the first American author that we have got to read in this course, and it was very interesting to learn about his amazing American ancestry: president of Harvard University, United States presidents, and the founder of Washington University. I feel that Eliot was born into a family that did not accept less than greatest which was able to achieve. One thing that I also found interesting was that even though he was born in America, his poetry was extremely influenced by the British and French poetry because he chose to study abroad. If he had not have done this, his poetry would not be where it is today.

A poem that I had a little difficulty with but thought was funny when I could understand it was, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock”. This, in fact, was not a love story that I was expecting from reading the title, but about a man who is wrestling with his own psyche. I think that Eliot did a good job of writing about the man’s thoughts, because this is the way that people actually think when in situations like these. Most people, when facing things such as talking to a person whom they are attracted to, only think about their flaws instead of their attributes.

Alfred Prufock seems to have seen a woman that he would like to talk to, “In the room the women come and go”; however, he gets very nervous and is fighting with himself as to whether it is worth it to go and talk to her or not. I think that this poems starts with Prufrock thinking that he is going to be able to talk to this lady and his seems to be filled with confidence. The poem starts by saying, “Let us go then, you and I,/ When the evening is spread out against the sky.” I think this is supposed to show that he plans to take this woman out and it is not until he sees her that he panics. This kind of goes along with the saying “you can talk the talk but can you walk the walk”.

After seeing this woman, he thinks that he should turn around. He is then in an argument with himself, talking about all his flaws. On example is, “With a bald spot in the middle of my hair- (They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin!’”. I can relate to this poem and they way that he is thinking. There are times when I really want to impress someone but it is natural for me as well as anyone else to second guess oneself. Along with fearing what she will think of his physical attributes he also fears what he will actually say to her. When people are nervous, some people become mute, some people ramble, and others may say inappropriate things by mistake. “Then how should I begin/ To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?” Further along in the poem he also claims, “It is impossible to say just what I mean!” This just shows common nerves when being in an awkward situation.

It seems that at the end of this argument with his psyche he convinces himself that he and this woman will never be able to be together. “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord”. I think that the message that Eliot is trying to relay to his audience is not to distance oneself from the world. If everyone just settled for what they think they deserve, no one would be able to get ahead in life. Eliot is portraying this common psyche of people to try and should them that they should not act this way.