J. Alfred Prufrock Poem
The journey of life will ultimately always end in death. In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Elliot, we can interpret the story in many ways, but in Emily Dickenson’s “712”, we see common traits between both poems.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a story of a man. The entire poem is based off of Dante’s “Inferno”. Bringing into the thought that everyone has their own personal hell depending on their life. Prufrock, to me, is already in his hell not traveling to death. We see references of what we assume is a ghetto. Shambled hotels and bars, prostitutes and animated fag that twists in unseemly ways are obviously unseemly to him and give him a sense of unease. Another difference between this and “712” is the fact that Prufrock is forced to see all his faults even in death. He is described as an insect pinned to a board, open to all those who see him. He views it as a never ending judgement of sorts. Another differing factor is that other supernatural beings exist, other than death, because at the end of the poem he references the “sea-girls (who) watched with seaweed read and brown, Till human voices wake us, and we drown" p. 1389. The sea girls are what ancient mythology would call a siren, creature who …show more content…
A poem, that while much shorter than “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, is still about the journey of death. The biggest difference between “712” and “Prufrock” is that Dickenson wrote about the journey with Death. She writes more about how the journey of life is always accompanied with Death and death is not a true ending. Her view point is that how every piece of life is a stepping stone farther into “Immortality”. She doesn’t write about hell, but about life. She references children playing and growing in life. “712” speaks of how humans see time. As we live, our lives seem stretched out and never ending, but when we look back we see how our lives are only a glimmer and “Feels shorter than the Day” p.
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a story of a man. The entire poem is based off of Dante’s “Inferno”. Bringing into the thought that everyone has their own personal hell depending on their life. Prufrock, to me, is already in his hell not traveling to death. We see references of what we assume is a ghetto. Shambled hotels and bars, prostitutes and animated fag that twists in unseemly ways are obviously unseemly to him and give him a sense of unease. Another difference between this and “712” is the fact that Prufrock is forced to see all his faults even in death. He is described as an insect pinned to a board, open to all those who see him. He views it as a never ending judgement of sorts. Another differing factor is that other supernatural beings exist, other than death, because at the end of the poem he references the “sea-girls (who) watched with seaweed read and brown, Till human voices wake us, and we drown" p. 1389. The sea girls are what ancient mythology would call a siren, creature who …show more content…
A poem, that while much shorter than “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, is still about the journey of death. The biggest difference between “712” and “Prufrock” is that Dickenson wrote about the journey with Death. She writes more about how the journey of life is always accompanied with Death and death is not a true ending. Her view point is that how every piece of life is a stepping stone farther into “Immortality”. She doesn’t write about hell, but about life. She references children playing and growing in life. “712” speaks of how humans see time. As we live, our lives seem stretched out and never ending, but when we look back we see how our lives are only a glimmer and “Feels shorter than the Day” p.