T.S. Eliot: An American Poet Abroad

Brief Biography Eliot the Modernist Prufrock Ideas

Biography

Sept. 26, 1888 Thomas Stearns Eliot is born in St. Louis, Missouri.

1906-1909 Undergraduate at Harvard. Discovers Symbolists, including Laforgue.

1909-1910 Grad. Student at Harvard 1910-1911 Studies in Paris. “Prufrock” completed.

1911-1914 Continues Grad. Studies at Harvard 1915 Eliot becomes resident of London and marries Vivien Haigh-Wood in July.

1915 1922 1917 1920 1922 1925

Biography (continued)

Eliot holds several jobs, including being a teacher, bank clerk and editor of the literary magazine

Egoist

and

The Criterion

.

Prufrock and Other Observations Poems and Sacred Wood: Essays in Poetry and Criticism The Waste Land The Hollow Men

Biography (continued)

1927 1930 1939 1943 1948 1950 58 1965 Eliot is confirmed in the Church of England and becomes a naturalized British citizen. Publishes “The Journey of the Magi.”

Ash Wednesday Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats Four Quartets

Eliot is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature

The Cocktail Party, The Confidential Clerk, The Elder Statesman

Died in London

Eliot as Modernist

    

Break in Logical Sequence

—to think in human way, like a stream-of-consciousness approach

Thick Language

—layers/allusions/puns

Inner (Psychological) Reality

—perspective of world from one person

Impressionism

—focuses on the the act of noticing things in the world —how is it shaped, what is going on?

Juxtapositions

—In

The Waste Land

, idea of forced multiperspectivism (like Picasso). In “Prufrock,” idea of shocking reader with contrasting images 

Open Endings

-some ideas unresolved/ also resists single-interpretation

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

The Titles

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is from a collection of poems titled

Prufrock and Other Observations

(1917) Originally titled “Prufrock Among the Women” “J. Alfred Prufrock” follows early form of Eliot’s signature: “T. Stearns Eliot” As we read, we want to question what about this poem makes it a love song.

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

The Epigraph

These lines are taken from Dante's

Inferno

(all part of

The Divine Comedy

), and are spoken by the character of Count Guido da Montefelltro. Dante meets the punished Guido da Montefelltro in the Eighth chasm of Hell. He explains that he is speaking freely to Dante only because he believes Dante is one of the dead who could never return to earth to report what he says.

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

Translation

"If I thought that my reply would be to someone who would ever return to earth, this flame would remain without further movement; but as no one has ever returned alive from this gulf, if what I hear is true, I can answer you with no fear of infamy."

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

Biblical References

Matthew 14:3-11, Mark 6:17-29 in the Bible; the death of John the Baptist. King Herod was enamored of a dancing girl named Salome. He offered her a gift of anything she wanted in his kingdom. Salome's mother told her to request the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter. Herod complied.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock

"And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'" "But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'" "And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'" "He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead'" (Luke 16:19-31).

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

“For everything there is a season, And a time for every matter under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing; A time to seek, and a time to lose; A time to keep, and a time to throw away; A time to tear, and a time to sew; A time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate, A time for war, and a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).