Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock : Representation of Modern Man Essay Example
THE LOVE SONG OF J.ALFRED PRUFROC
Often called the first Modernist poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” was published in the prestigious American journal Poetry in June 1915.
About the Poem: The poem centers on the feelings and thoughts of the eponymous speaker (the somewhat neurotic Prufrock) as he walks through the streets of London route to meet a woman for tea. He is considering a question (perhaps, broadly, the meaning of life, or, more narrowly, a proposal of marriage). Far more than just the “love song” of a romantic, agonized young man, the poem explores the Modernist alienation of the individual in society. Thomas Stearns Eliot, 1888 – 1965
Born into a prosperous Midwestern family, Eliot attended Harvard and then went on to study at Oxford. Although born an American, Eliot married an Englishwoman, gave up his American citizenship, and lived most of his life in London.
Eliot made his living as a teacher, a banker, and an influential literary critic. He popularized the modernist style of thinking and writing. In fiction, modernism was represented by the stark realism of such writers as Ernest Hemingway, but in poetry this new sensibility was quite different. The Imagists, including Eliot’s close friend and fellow poet, Ezra Pound, believed in the motto, “No ideas but in things,” in other words, the image is most important, the meaning secondary. Modernists embraced free verse (no regular rhyme scheme or meter) and freedom of thought (often their writing questioned accepted ideas and social norms). This anti-traditional and anti-romantic trend began before World War I; however the unprecedented loss of humanity during the war accelerated the popularization of modernism. The war caused many people to reexamine their previous beliefs in religion and the innate goods of humankind, and one radical branch of modernism, known as Dada, claimed that the only legitimate emotion left was disgust.
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," An Overview
The
Often called the first Modernist poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” was published in the prestigious American journal Poetry in June 1915.
About the Poem: The poem centers on the feelings and thoughts of the eponymous speaker (the somewhat neurotic Prufrock) as he walks through the streets of London route to meet a woman for tea. He is considering a question (perhaps, broadly, the meaning of life, or, more narrowly, a proposal of marriage). Far more than just the “love song” of a romantic, agonized young man, the poem explores the Modernist alienation of the individual in society. Thomas Stearns Eliot, 1888 – 1965
Born into a prosperous Midwestern family, Eliot attended Harvard and then went on to study at Oxford. Although born an American, Eliot married an Englishwoman, gave up his American citizenship, and lived most of his life in London.
Eliot made his living as a teacher, a banker, and an influential literary critic. He popularized the modernist style of thinking and writing. In fiction, modernism was represented by the stark realism of such writers as Ernest Hemingway, but in poetry this new sensibility was quite different. The Imagists, including Eliot’s close friend and fellow poet, Ezra Pound, believed in the motto, “No ideas but in things,” in other words, the image is most important, the meaning secondary. Modernists embraced free verse (no regular rhyme scheme or meter) and freedom of thought (often their writing questioned accepted ideas and social norms). This anti-traditional and anti-romantic trend began before World War I; however the unprecedented loss of humanity during the war accelerated the popularization of modernism. The war caused many people to reexamine their previous beliefs in religion and the innate goods of humankind, and one radical branch of modernism, known as Dada, claimed that the only legitimate emotion left was disgust.
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," An Overview
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