A summary of Alfred Prufrock's Love Song

The love Song of Alfred J Prufrock is one of the earliest major works of Eliot. Though it was completed in 1911, it was published in 1915. The focus of this work is examining the agonized psyche of the classical modern man such as being eloquent, overeducated, emotionally stilted and neurotic. The main narrator, Prufrock, appears to be addressing a prospective lover who he wished he would “force the moment to its crisis” by consummating their relationship in one way or another. However, he does not have enough ego to approach the woman. When he hears in his mind other people’s comments concerning his inadequacies, he comes to hate himself so much for presuming that emotional interaction might not be possible at all.

The poem navigates around a moderately concrete physical setting. In this setting are several interiors which form a series of formless ocean images that convey the emotional alienation of Prufrock from the real world as he eventually recognizes his second-rate status (“I am not Prince Hamlet’). In essence, Prufrock develops a sense of powerfulness owing to a range of rational references and the brilliance of character achieved.