WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Poetry Fix: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

In this episode of The Poetry Fix, we explore the first part of T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."

Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm your host, Erica Kaiba, bringing you your weekly fix of poetry from across time. Today we're reading part of the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot. This is a poem with two major themes, the peril of indecision and of miscommunication. It starts with an excerpt from Dante's Inferno in Italian, without a translation, which immediately introduces the theme of frustrated communication. The character in the quote is telling Dante that he would never reveal his sins to someone he believed would return to the world of the living, but that he will speak to Dante because he doesn't believe it is possible for Dante to escape hell. And then the quote just ends, without telling us what the speaker's sin is.

J. Alfred Prufrock, the narrator, then begins to describe a romantic scene to his prospective love interest, which quickly devolves. He invites her to walk with him when the evening is spread out against the sky, guy, like a patient, etherized on a table. He then describes a date plan involving half-deserted streets, cheap hotels, and sawdust restaurants. Proufrock is looking for romance, but he's in a heavily industrialized environment, as we will later see, one that is not conducive to romance. Proufrock, as he imagines himself inviting this woman out, begins to envision the problems that arise in every relationship, the tedious arguments of insidious. intent. He says that the arguments will lead to an overwhelming question, but then he interrupts himself

and it is never clear what the overwhelming question might be. Communication is frustrated once more. Then Proufrock turns away entirely from the romantic scene to insert a couplet that will reappear a few times. In the room the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo. It's a small glimpse of the fashionable society that fills Proufrock with anxiety. It also gives us a glimpse of the vapid nature of the high society. They're talking about Michelangelo, a mighty figure in the world of art, but they're doing it as they bustle about, coming and going, not really treating any subject with the seriousness it deserves. Then we get an image of the yellow fog that fills Proofrock City, presumably London. Yellow fog suggests industrialization, but on the symbolic level,

the color yellow is traditionally associated with cowardice. This ties into the theme of the poem. The yellow fog being likened to a cat creates the image of cowardice as something comforting. With all that said, let's dive in. The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock. If I credes that my response to be a person who might turnassie this fiamma would be sensed

but for you that ghiame and of this fond of no longer I do the vero, since a theme of infamia, I, to respond. Let us go then, you and I. when the evening is spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table. Let us go through certain half-deserted streets, the muttering retreats of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels, and sawdust restaurants with oyster shells,

streets that follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent, to lead you to an overwhelming question. Oh, do not ask what is it. Let us go. and make our visit. In the room the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo. 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 and 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. You've been listening to The Poetry Fix with Erica Kaiba.

Join me next week and we'll be reading on this island by W.