Since most readers immediately associate “humanism” with secular or atheism, I suppose this wildly incorrect assumption needs some unpacking. No matter how commonplace the modern understanding of humanism has become, I would contend that the secularism or atheism so many associate with humanism is “cut-flower”—the blossom of humanism plucked from its organic stem, Christianity. After […]
Prufrock: Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?
As we continue our journey unpacking The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, you may enjoy listening to Anthony Hopkins read Eliot’s poem. As was seen in the last post about the poem, time is a central issue for Prufrock. It is only in the last five lines where he is contemplating having time to […]
Good Teachers Need to Become Good at Teaching
There is a troubling irony in education. Teachers who are adept at stimulating thoughtfulness and creating learning opportunities for students in the classroom frequently struggle to use those same skills to teach the public at large. For the teacher who immediately responded to this assertion by saying to him or herself, “Yeah, but who am […]
Prufrock: A Time for Everything Under the Sun
The first three lines of the next stanza connect it with the previous one by use of the feline-like yellow fog reference: And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; Like the feline imagery of the previous stanza, this one is entirely […]
Prufrock: Yellow Feline Fog
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 […]
Is Prufrock a Bottom Feeder in the Underworld?
Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent These lines imply they are in a part of the city where the monotonous streets subtly lead one deeper into the abyss of debauchery. The import of imagery seems characteristic of the Vieux Carre, in New Orleans, or of Greenwich Village, in New York City. […]
The Uneasiness of Modern City Life: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, the muttering retreats The lines “Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,” indicates the narrator has moved from prompting his companion to go with him, to guiding his companion to a certain end. There seems to be echoes of Dante’s Virgil who let him through the nine concentric […]
A Melancholy Meditation: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Let us go then you and I. When the evening is spread out against the sky. Like a patient etherized upon a table; In case you’re new to our merry band, and have only recently subscribed, I’m writing a short series of posts on T. S. Eliot’s, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” in […]
An Impotent Messenger from the Underworld: The Epigraph of J. Alfred Prufrock
S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero, Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo. If I believed my reply were to one that was ever to return to the world, this flame, […]
What’s With This Title: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
In a previous post, I introduced T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” and promised to try and pry a basement window open and provide some low-level access to the poem’s meaning. In this post, we’ll simply investigate the poem’s title. There are two primary aspects worthy of consideration in this initial […]