The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock | T.S. Eliot | Close Reading Lecture

The lecture provides a close reading, a contextual placement of the poem within literary tradition, a summary of the major themes, and an analysis of the poem through a line by line reading. Focusing on "voice" in poetry, the video explores the unity of T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."

Published in June 1915 in Poetry, was then printed again in Catholic Magazine, another poetry magazine edited by Pound, in November the same year. Eliot published it in his collected poems Sesame and Penguin in 1917.

Prufrock as Modernist Poem 0:00-6:53
Prufrock and Voice 6:53-9:20
Epigraph 9:20-9:50
Pericope 1 9:50-14:30
Pericope 2 14:30-15:25
Pericope 3 15:25-17:20
Pericope 4 17:20-22:00
Pericope 5 22:00-22:54
Pericope 6 22:54-27:35
Pericope 7 27:35-29:25
Pericope 8 29:25-30:50
Pericope 9 30:50-32:35
Pericope 10 32:35-33:53
Pericope 11 33:53-35:19
Pericope 12 35:19-40:04
Pericope 13 40:04-44:14
Pericope 14 44:14-46:28
Pericope 15 46:28-48:50
Pericope 16 48:50-49:45
Pericope 17 49:45-51:18
Pericopes 18 &19 51:18-55:03
Conclusion 55:03-56:17

______________

Keywords:
Close Reading Modernism, T.S. Eliot, close reading The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Formalism, Analysis of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, line by line reading of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

[greilcook]

Nice job, Adam. I'm a writer who wrote and studied a lot of poetry in undergrad. Nine years ago, I sustained a traumatic brain injury and lost the ability to understand poetry. Major bummer. But when I watch your videos, I realize I may be able to relearn this skill, as I can follow your explanations. So I appreciate the close readings, especially this one, as Prufrock was always a favorite of mine in college. Thank you.

[johnnyjordan]

Hope to see you do more Eliot. Specifically his Four Quartets. Would love to understand it more. :)

[charliewest]

Take a bow young man! Excellent analysis that opens new windows on the seemingly elusive Prufrock. I see something new each time I read this poem.

[Maria_AR]

I as a student of literature found this poem elusive in 2004, it was so hard to understand but now that I'm teaching it, I'm in love with how Prufrock voices his inability to action and juxtaposes action with inaction through words that linger and break all along the poem. It really is his voice that he calls a confessional song here. Thank you for the analysis, it was enlightening.

[david_s]

Thank you for making this video. This is probably my favorite poem, and I learned so much from you about the meter, composition, and self-reference through repeated phrasing (especially the pin 🤯).

I was a bit sad for you to have glossed over the famous line, "Do I dare to eat a peach?" Apart from the obvious interpretations (Prufrock's lack of spontaneity; that as we age, we stop savoring life; and the sexual innuendo), when watching your video I noticed the reuse of "Do I dare." Previously he was indecisive about *disturbing the universe, * but now he can't even work up the courage to eat a peach!

I would have loved to hear your thoughts on "coffee spoons", too. For me, it's dissonant with "there will be time, " just like his bald spot. I can just see him taking coffee out of the tin every day, *knowing* less is left, but not able to observe and appreciate that fact until it runs low. Like an hourglass. That is *exactly* how I experienced aging as a kid, teen, young adult, and now approaching mid-life. This poem ages like wine.

[stephenscott]

Adam your historic reflection of the progress of Poetry and analysis of The Love Song is superb and so enlightening

[robertgainer]

Wonderful. My admission interview for my undergraduate degree in literature at Warwick was based on a close reading of this poem, and it has been a favourite ever since. I have read it so many times and never failed to get something new from it each time. Your close reading of it brought even more revelations. Thank you! If you are a fan of Eliot then would you consider doing his Four Quartets? I have been reading them recently and think they are wonderful. I would love to see how you tackle them, as I’m sure you’ll see things that I have missed or misunderstood.

[billcawley]

You may be over-reading the stairs. Many 18th century UK town houses (including ours) had a drawing room on the first floor (up stairs). But thanks - this poem continues to give.

[justinwerth]

Well done! I always enjoy listening to you read analyze. Hopefully my teaching of the poem in a few weeks will be half as good.

[eduardusilveira]

And the poem ends with another anapest. Incredible video!

[closereadingpoetry]

Correction: The Job reference about the sky is spoken *by* Elihu *about *God (not by God): "Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?" (Job 37:18). This lends some new valence to the allusion. Job is unique from other books in the Bible because it's largely made up of dialogue, a dialogue between Job and his friends and between Job and God. In that sense it is a book full of voices. The allusion here is spoken by Elihu, the youngest friend of the group who, like most of Job's friends, refuses to comfort Job, yet his address to Job is markedly different from the older friends. Jewish and Christian scholars and commentators have been divided as to whether Elihu's words participate in the foolishness of Job's previous "comforters" or whether it serves as a wise prelude to the words of the Almighty which follow shortly after. This makes Eliot's allusion all the more suggestive and adds to the sense of ambivalence that is both present in the voice of Prufrock and felt by the readers of "Prufrock."

[GuidoToschi-rfnh]

For someone who might be interested, the translation of Dante's verses in the beginning of the poem are: "If I thought that my answer would be addressed to someone who ever could come back to the world (of the living), this flame would no longer move (i.e. I would no longer speak to you). But since never from this deep bottom (i.e. hell) was anyone ever able to turn alive again, if what I have heard is true, I will answer you without fear of being blamed". By the way, the french name "Laforgue" is pronounced "Laforg", the "-orgue" being hard as in "ORGanization".

[niallkennedy]

Brilliant! Ever thought of analysing W.B. Yeats?

[mickchatwin]

I see a closer connection between the anonymous women and the mermaids; they seem to be the same, but transfigured by Prufrock's (Eliot's) fears and indecisions. Having shied away from disturbing the universe, he retreats to a beach, a liminal space in which he can hold himself distant from the erotic threat that any women (or mermaids) represent. Even though they don't sing to him (skinny, balding, insignificant), but to each other (of Michelangelo, maybe), what they represent by their presence is dangerously seductive. Hearing the poem like this means I can't avoid hearing the 'human voices' at the close as exclusively male, as though women become a separate species. This feels congruent, to me, with the apparent intimate or confessional tone, co-opting 'you' (us), so long as the imagined audience is male. Prufrock (Eliot?) seems terrified of women. Maybe I'm reading too much in this ...

[beheras]

Sir,
Am a literature student and I want to humble you may given this question answer "Difference between Romanticism and Modernism

[markhughes]

56:15 ..yet to understand the significance of the poem’s title…!
…the poet perhaps is adding the verb ‘to do’ to the implicated verb ‘to be’…?
..the escapism seems directed to archaic Greece and the conjunction there to be found of heroic (decisive) action with the full tone of elemental imagery..

[zzkurshi]

please close reading the wasteland, Ts Elliot

[jeremiahunderwood]

I hope you do "The Wasteland."

[SingleMalt]

Is it fair to say that T.S. Eliot beat James Joyce to the whole stream of consciousness thing?

[danieljuneau]

I think I see that you’re doing here, reading and lecturing to us on the metaphysical poets and helping us understanding the unseen world. Since we all may have grown up only learning about the seen world. Or maybe I’m crazy, anyway, that’s what I’m seeing here with your videos.
Looking forward to Milton