{"id":32909,"date":"2016-08-03T06:30:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T18:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=32909"},"modified":"2016-07-31T10:59:08","modified_gmt":"2016-07-30T22:59:08","slug":"poetry-the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock-by-ts-eliot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2016\/08\/03\/poetry-the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock-by-ts-eliot\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by TS Eliot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
.....<\/span>S\u2019io credesse che mia risposta fosse <\/em>\r\n.....<\/span>A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, <\/em>\r\n.....<\/span>Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. <\/em>\r\n.....<\/span>Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo <\/em>\r\n.....<\/span>Non torno vivo alcun, s\u2019i\u2019odo il vero, <\/em>\r\n.....<\/span>Senza tema d\u2019infamia ti rispondo.<\/em><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Let us go then, you and I,<\/div>\n
When the evening is spread out against the sky<\/div>\n
Like a patient etherized upon a table;<\/div>\n
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,<\/div>\n
The muttering retreats<\/div>\n
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels<\/div>\n
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:<\/div>\n
Streets that follow like a tedious argument<\/div>\n
Of insidious intent<\/div>\n
To lead you to an overwhelming question …<\/div>\n
Oh, do not ask, \u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/div>\n
Let us go and make our visit.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
In the room the women come and go<\/div>\n
Talking of Michelangelo.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,<\/div>\n
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,<\/div>\n
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,<\/div>\n
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,<\/div>\n
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,<\/div>\n
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,<\/div>\n
And seeing that it was a soft October night,<\/div>\n
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
\n…
\n.<\/span>
\nby TS Eliot, 1888 – 1965
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
—<\/div>\n
Last week I featured TS Eliot’s The Waste Land<\/em>, saying that it was arguably one of the most significant poems of the 20th century. However, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock<\/em> is almost as well known and is regarded as one of the most significant works in marking the shift to post-WW1 modernism.
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As you can see from the excerpt I’ve featured, it also has some killer lines. It has been a favourite of mine since I first discovered it, while at High School. I only knew that I liked it, but the Cambridge<\/em>\u00a0History of American Literature<\/i><\/span> cites ‘Prufrock’ <\/em>as “one of the most recognised voices in modern literature.”
\n.<\/span>
\n<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The epigraph, or open quotation, comes from Dante’s Inferno and reads:
\n.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“If I but thought that my response were made<\/em>
\nto one perhaps returning to the world,<\/em>
\nthis tongue of flame would cease to flicker.<\/em>
\nBut since, up from these depths, no one has yet<\/em>
\nreturned alive, if what I hear is true,<\/em>
\nI answer without fear of being shamed.”<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
…..S\u2019io credesse che mia risposta fosse …..A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, …..Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. …..Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo …..Non torno vivo alcun, s\u2019i\u2019odo il vero, …..Senza tema d\u2019infamia ti rispondo. Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32909"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32913,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32909\/revisions\/32913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}