In case you’re just tuning in, I’m on a short quest to slowly unpack T. S. Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and see if we can’t gain some access—even if basement-level access—into his poetic corpus.
Why, you might ask? Because according to Russel Kirk, Eliot was the principle champion of the moral imagination in the twentieth century. I am working then on the assumption there is hidden treasure in Eliot’s poetic house. That said, let’s keep moving in that direction.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
The overwhelming question appears to have never been asked, and the narrator and his companion are either now among some society of women, or he is making an observation by diverting his attention. To talk of Michelangelo might suggest the women simply give the pretense of being cultured without really being cultured, and their talk is that of frivolity.
If on the other hand, there is an allusion here to a house of ill-repute—and the text certainly hints at this—the women might be prostitutes and Michelangelo may be veiled reference to a customer, a John, as they are oft referred to in the modern world.
The next stanza is best considered as a whole, as no one line by itself seems to add any significant insight into the poem’s meaning, as the lines in the previous stanza seemed to do. As a whole, however, there is a single image that is crafted masterfully, which demonstrates very clearly the free-verse form that frees the poet from any single rhyme, meter, or line scheme:
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
The yellow fog in this stanza is feline-like. Note the way it “rubs its back,” and “rubs its muzzle,” and “licked its tongue,” and “lingered upon the pools,” and “slipped…made a sudden leap,” and “curled once about the house and fell asleep.”
Even the “soft October night” is a feline reference considering October is the month of Halloween, a holiday associated with black cats. The image of the soot that falls on its back from the chimney suggests it may be turning black, a dirty fog settling on a dirty city, the way an alley cat settles down for the night.
This is a dark and depressing image that would make sense in the context of sexual frustration or one flirting with a chance to “dispose of his virginity…well before marriage.”
On the other hand, it may also be an early revelation of Eliot’s fascination with cats. Apparently, Eliot thought highly of cats, believing they were extremely intelligent.
The zoomorphism of the yellow fog as a feline settling down and curling itself around the city may also be another reference to ether, settling its comatose effects over the city, rather than just one patient, the way a cat settles into a comfortable position to sleep.
The imagery then would reaffirm the dream-like state felt in the first stanza and suggest Prufrock and his companion are only contemplating something and not acting.
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