I’ve reviewed a lot of films and books on here but I wanted to start a series annotating my favourite poems and had to start with T.S Eliot. Hope you enjoy and don’t forget to like and follow 🙂

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
I am no prophet — and here’s no great matter;
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.
I love this poem. A lot. It had some beautiful imagery in it that just captures you as a reader. The Poem is full of questions and indeed there will be time to wonder “do I dare disturb the universe”
At the start of the poem, we can really picture the streets he is telling us about
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
We wonder who he is going with if there is some romantic partner he is talking about or if it just the reader. The writer uses the word choice of “certain” which is obscure as for most of the poem he is doubtful.
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,
The writer uses personification effectively here “licked its tongue into the corners of the evening” this gives the night a mysterious feel.
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
The writer uses the repetition “there will be time , there will be time” he is almost reassuring himself and is aware of his mortality.
For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
Again the writer uses the repetition in the first line. He is almost looking back on his life and the monotony of it , he is apathetic and sees his actions as meaningless.
And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
He is questioning the reader and the quality of his life. He questions the daily activities he undertakes and if they have any point.
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all.”
I love this line in the poem. The writer is timid , perhaps In his life and work he has been seen as arrogant or pretentious and this line shows that he has been misunderstood.
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.
This supports this point the author is devaluing himself and his life and work by calling himself ridiculous and almost at times “The fool”
Till human voices wake us, and we drown
The last line of the poem is so emotional it is not happy or positive , it makes life and the end of life seem bitter and helpless. It seems like the author is so caught up in his fantasies , setting and daily activities at the end he romanticizes walking along a beach and eating a peach and in the last line he almost wakes up to cold reality and drowns in it.