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

Poetry analysis: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Elliot
The poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Elliot, contains themes and language (diction and syntax) that are much more contemporary and colloquial than those we have studied earlier. Throughout the poem we can feel the sense of time passing, and the mentioning of growing ‘old’. This poem is much longer than other poems we studied. There are random rhyming scheme going on throughout the poem, but it is evident that almost every stanza has rhymes. There are few couplets and one line where sometimes same sentence is repeated. This poem contains variety of allusions but mostly from the bible. It brings out the prophet John the Baptist and Lazarus who was raised from the dead. It also talks a bit about Hamlet and how he doesn’t procrastinate. I believe that the last line is significant “Till human voices wake us, and we drown.” I think that it means we live in such a society that focuses on work, politics, and industrial lives that we grow old and tired. Until the “human voices wake us” we won’t be able to realize this sort of life style and eventually drown.