T.S. Eliot Responses

CROSS-POSTED FROM MOODLE -- 3/6/11 23:22

A response to the number of questions in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":


I count twelve occurrences of questions, but only nine questions, as variants of "how shall I presume?" occur thrice; "Do I dare?" is written twice in the same line.

This is not at all related to questions, but were I a mermaid, I would have no desire to sing to an aging man with his hair parted, eating a peach, and walking along the shoreline in rolled white flannel trousers.


"The Wasteland," sections IV and V (originally posted 49 minutes after above)


I agree with Daniel's assessment of Section IV to an extent, but it almost feels like the intensity of the cautionary tale is almost magnified -- not a warning that this CAN happen, but that it WILL.

Similarly, there is no denying that Section V is disjointed and discomforting. As I read it, my first thought is of someone perishing in the desert, like Jeremiah's vine (with added vultures for cinematic effect). Continuing, then, along those lines, is it possible that the first part of the final stanza (lines 425-7) are a sort of final flashback? Fishing does not seem logical as an action for the life stage at which the rest of the section places the protagonist, nor a likelihood that near to an arid plain, nor something one would do from London Bridge.