Perrine ’ s Poetry Chapter 16 “ Evaluating Poetry 2: Poetic Excellence ”

1. Perrine’s Poetry Chapter 16 “Evaluating Poetry 2: Poetic Excellence” Did it feel like you needed to know a lot, read a lot, and do a lot of research in order to understand these poems? No? Well, then you probably didn’t do a very good job. Even we (who have read and taught these poems before) had to do research.

2. So, Does He Dare? For Discussion: Where is Prufrock going in the poem? To whom does he wish to make some declaration? Does he do it? Where is the climax of the poem? What is the portion of the poem after the climax devoted to? • There is certainly a great amount of ambiguity involved in this poem – not even the critics can agree on who “you and I” are, whether Prufrock is literally headed anywhere or not, what exactly Prufrock wishes to declare, or to whom he wishes to declare it. • What we can determine: • Prufrock is guiding an unnamed listener through a rather seedy neighborhood to an afternoon tea party. Does he know the women at the tea party? Possibly. Some critics believe Prufrock is going to a party full of new people (thus, he is nervous about speaking to any of them); others believe he wishes to approach one particular woman from among a circle of friends. Either explanation has some merit, as long as it is supported with evidence. • Whether or not Prufrock is literally going anywhere is less important than his characterization, his reaction to the situation he confronts (the “meaning of the work as a whole,” if you will). • The first part of the poem is Prufrock’s attempt to work up the nerve to make some declaration (whatever it is) to some woman (whomever she is) – he keeps asking himself, “Do I dare?” and assuring himself “There will be time.” • The climax is, arguably, the moment where he comes closest to making this declaration . . . and ultimately fails. Lines 84-86: “I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker / And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, / And in short, I was afraid.” • The rest of the poem, then, is made up of Prufrock’s attempts to justify his inability to act – he wonders “And would it have been worth it, after all” (87, 99, 106), deciding it would not, particularly if the woman (women?) were to respond, “That is not what I meant at all. / That is not it, at all” (97-98, 109-110). • Some critics (including Perrine’s – whom we disagree with a bit) suggest that the entire poem is an internal monologue, that “you” and “I” are both Prufrock, even more isolated than he seems if we read the poem literally. While there is certainly some merit to this argument, it is not the only interpretation, and it is not the most common one.

3. Poetic Excellence: Fresh Use of Language (✔) Figures of Speech (✔). Lines 2-3: “When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table” (reflects the dull, anesthetized, immobile, paralytic manner in which Prufrock (and many others in society) lives his life; the simile is somewhat jarring considering we’re expecting to read the “Love Song” of the speaker) Lines 15-22 and 75-78: Both comparing the day to a cat (reflects the sleepy way in which Prufrock lives – he is much like the cat who pokes around the edges of life, thinks about doing something, but then ultimately decides to take a nap instead; this is also an  allusion to Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog”; finally, there is also an element of, yes, sorry cat people – sex appeal – in the feline association as well) Lines 57-58:“And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, / When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall” (he feels the subject of close inspection – think dissection pins . . . surely you remember that part of bio!) Lines 73-74: “I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas” (wishes he were a crab  rather than a human being who has to make decisions and ask for human affection . . . the use of the term “scuttling” also has a “fraidy-cat” connotation; additionally, this plays up the patheticism of his fear – how bad must a situation be when one would choose to be a crab rather than a human being?) Lines 124-131: While it seems Prufrock is talking about mermaids, he’s really going for Sirens (see, it does pay off to have read Hamilton’s Mythology in 9th grade!), who lure men to their deaths with their singing. He also points out they are singing “each to each,” which indicates that they are not enticing him. There is also a fairy tale or dreamlike quality associated with the mermaids/sirens. Perhaps it is only here in this “dream world” that he can freely show his love (note the use of “we” in the last stanza). It is also important to note that when he is awakened (maybe those human voices are society’s), they drown. The title is ironic in the sense that this is not, in fact, a love song and that Prufrock does not, in fact, have the nerve to make a love song. He would like to speak of love to a woman, but he does not dare.

4. If you didn’t look up the allusions, you’ve got no clue what’s going on in this poem. For Discussion: This is not an “I’ll just use my prior knowledge and the text” poem. Notice there’s no question here? We didn’t have a lot of faith that enough of you would actually look up the translation of the epigraph from Dante’s Inferno to make a question worthwhile. • A Translation: • “If I thought that my reply would be to someone who would ever return to earth, • this flame would remain without further movement; but as no one has ever returned • alive from this gulf, if what I hear is true, I can answer you with no fear of infamy.” • Brief Context: • These lines are spoken by the character of Count Guido da Montefelltro. Dante meets the punished Guido in the Eighth chasm of Hell. Guido explains that he is speaking freely to Dante only because he believes Dante is one of the dead who could never return to earth to report what he says. • Why It Matters: • Guido confesses his shame because it cannot be heard back on earth. Prufrock is entering into the poem with the same lack of fear, however, he includes the reader from the very first stanza (the “you” of the first line addresses a woman – according to some critics – and the reader) indicating that he does not fear judgment from the reader. This helps to establish some believability with Prufrock because we wouldn’t expect someone so timid, introverted. and shy to share with us what Prufrock willingly does in the poem. • Eliot might also be making a connection between Dante and Prufrock and Guido and Prufrock. Prufrock is the antithesis of Dante. He wants to possess the same heroic qualities as Dante (but clearly doesn’t) – Dante is what he strives for but fails to reach. Guido is what Prufrock is, or at the very least, the state in which he exists. Guido, like Prufrock (and his world), is isolated and wasteful – each a result of his own doing.

5. Even more Allusions! “Works and Days” In his procrastination (to answer the unasked question, live, enjoy life, etc.), Prufrock drops in the phrase “works and days,” the title of a poem by Hesiod that is a call for action and toil issued by the goddess Strife to stir the shiftless (those lacking ambition). This is probably intended to be ironic, yes? We think so! Twelfth Night  The “dying fall” of overheard music echoes the opening of Twelfth Night where Duke Orsino, the man who is in love with love, asks for more music, the food of love, because he craves satiety. Shakespeare's fictional duke seems an obvious foil to Prufrock (just like Hamlet – coming up – and Dante). John the Baptist Feared to be a prophet by Herod, his head was wanted (by Herodias's daughter) to be brought to her on a platter. Prufrock feels that his head, which he notes has "grown slightly bald" was brought in upon a platter before his eyes, but he is no prophet (79-81). His moment of greatness past, he has not completed what he wanted to do; he allowed fear to stop him. (So, again, perhaps, we have a foil to Prufrock – both of their heads may have been served on a platter; only one, however, can be considered “great.”) “To His Coy Mistress” “There will be time”: This phrase replies to the opening line of “To His Coy Mistress”: “Had we but world enough, and time.” In Marvell’s poem, the speaker urges his beloved not to be coy but instead to seize the moment – to take advantage of youth and “sport us while we may.” Prufrock, of course, continually postpones, saying “There will be time.”

6. Even more Allusions! “To His Coy Mistress”  (continued) Remember also, the speaker in Marvell’s poem is trying to convince his sweetheart to go to bed with him, that they might wrap themselves up into a ball (the most compact form of matter) and love each other passionately and intensely (and the poem can be read as suggesting that life should be lived this way, not just referring to sex); this creates irony/contrast, as it is the exact opposite of the way Prufrock lives his life. Lazarus You must first return to the epigraph to see the connection. Remember it? The reference to Lazarus connects with line 94 of “Prufrock”: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead, come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all.” In Luke, Lazarus goes to heaven and asks Abraham if the rich man Dives can be sent back from Hell to tell Lazarus’s five brothers what it is like, as a warning to them (Abraham refuses). Hamlet Prufrock is like Hamlet in that the latter is also indecisive. However, Prufrock decides not to compare himself with Hamlet, who is charismatic and even majestic in spite of his shortcomings. Instead, Prufrock compares himself with an unimpressive character in the Shakespeare play: the attendant lord, Polonius. Polonius, a bootlicking advisor to the new king, Claudius, sometimes uses a whole paragraph of important-sounding words to say what most other people could say in a simple declarative sentence. His pedantry makes him look foolish at times. Prufrock, of course, is worried that the words he speaks will make him look foolish, too. Canterbury Tales Suggests that the Clerk was full of high good sense (in the translated version), suggesting that Prufrock sees himself as ultimately wise, if dull or ridiculous at times (this seems to be the case . . . clearly he is well read and knowledgeable, though a bit sluggish). It also, however, ties back to the discussion of Hamlet above – Prufrock would like to speak well (like the Clerk, who would never say more than was needed, but would say it concisely and with great sense); however, he fears he more often comes across like the Fool – we see this several times throughout the poem, where he laments that “It is impossible to say just what I mean!” (104), or even when he fears that he will misinterpret the women he speaks to (“If one . . . Should say: ‘That is not what I meant at all. / That is not it, at all’”).