Poetry Project Essay

1. T.S Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
I: In T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” the protagonist lives a cowardly life afraid to express his feelings for passing by women. Throughout the entire poem, Prufrock, puts himself down by convincing himself that the women “will say ‘ but how his arms and legs are thin’” (44). He is extremely insecure about himself causing him to cower away from confrontation. He believes the women are going to rip him apart, bit by bit, and judge every part of him. Eventually he gets the courage to walk up to one of the women, since he feels he has nothing to lose, but wastes it by criticizing his age and thinking of how she would see him.
Frightened that they would stare at him with judgemental eyes, he remains where he is. In the end he drowns in his thoughts without having made any progress towards speaking with the women. II: Simile: “When the evening is spread out against the sky// like a patient etherized upon a table…” Prufrock compares the evening to a patient about to be operated on. He shows the evening being closely watched as to wait for night to come. Imagery: “Streets that follow like a tedious argument// of insidious intent…” Prufrock shows how long, dark, and mysterious the streets are. Symbolism: “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the windowpanes,// the yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the windowpanes…” The yellow fog symbolizes a cat that roams around mysteriously. Personification: “In the room the women come and go// talking of Michelangelo.” The women may be talking about Prufrock, but being the manly man of a man he may be, he thinks they’re talking good about him, but he’s ugly.
III:The theme of T.S. Eliot's poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is carpe diem. T.S.
Eliot's setting is in a room full of people, women are talking while he sits to the side observing.
Meanwhile he asks himself, "Do I dare (38)", questioning if he should go talk to these women who walk by. But he convinces himself not to go because of the assumption of judgement that

will be put upon him and gives the excuse, "Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And time for a hundred visions and revisions, Before taking of a toast and tea. (31)", saying there will be enough time. But as he grows older he realizes there isn't anymore time, he has run out. He wonders if it all would have been worth it, all the small talks and cups of tea, just to come to the conclusion, "That is not it at all, That is not what I meant at all. (109)".
The man has aged and is now too old to be looked at, "I have heard the mermaids sing, each to each. I do not think they will sing to me. (124)". T.S. Eliot provides us with the example of a man who gave the excuse of waiting until there was no time left, until there was no way he would be looked upon, not even by those who crave men. By using this predicament he shows us that the one thing you will regret is running out of time. That one needs to live in the moment even for the simple conversations that might not even be worth it.
IV: I like the poem because of how detailed the imagery was about the streets at night and how he compared the lonely streets to himself. I also liked how throughout the poem, Eliot stretched on his thoughts through most of the poem to show that he was overthinking about talking to the women in the room. I also like the idea of time in the poem and how he thinks that he has much more time to talk to the women, yet he just said that to stop from confronting them. I also liked how Elliot kept in mind of the reader and how he will ask us his question.

2.William Carlos Williams “The Red Wheelbarrow”
I: The poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams is simple and short phrased but provides a significant amount of imagery. He sets the reader looking upon "a red wheelbarrow// glazed with rain

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