"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Quotes

However, this melancholy and despairing conclusion he comes to shows he is aware of this beauty so near him but gives up in the inherently negative belief that he is not worthy.

"I do not think they will sing to me"

Mermaids are symbolic of passion and beauty.

"Mermaids singing, each to each"

This trite rhyme emphasises his ability to put off the essential with the trivial.

"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' / Let us go and make our visit"

Prufrock's procrastination has left him agitated, unconfident, feeling he needs to change, disillusioned and sexually frustrated. This particular lack of confidence is emphasised in this phrase when his repetitive comments interrupt any meaningful progress he has made, and act to mock this progress.

"They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!'"

This final line represents the voices of society breaking him from his inner musings which are the saddest yet most heartfelt of the poem, and he drowns in the same routine that has suffocated his passion and confidence - and traps him in the monotonous passing of repetitive routine.

"Till human voices wake us, and we drown"

The repetition of this phrase as a question shows Prufrock's hesitance to make meaningful movement and the physical act parallels his inability to feel content with any progression in his life.

"To wonder, 'Do I dare?' and, 'Do I dare?' / Time to turn back and descend the stair"

This is continually referred to but just as often avoided.

"an overwhelming question"

The women show that this theme of the trivial overcoming the profound is something that is plaguing the whole society and thus isolating the whole society.

"come and go / Talking of Michelangelo"

This suggests a running theme throughout the poem will be a desire for inactivity, an inherent pessimism, and a sickness. Suggests a sort of spiritual inertia and extreme and habitual procrastination which will prevent him from being able to ACT as his spirit so longs to. This attitude isolates him.

"the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized on a table"

Whilst a statement that normally suggests movement, in Prufrock's context it can be said to show his idleness and fear of the "overwhelming question" and any sort of movement forward. Furthers his procrastination.

"there will be time"