Write the explanation of the poem entitled "The Love Song". (Part

Write the explanation of the poem entitled “The Love Song”. (Part-2)

Ans.

EXPLANATIONS

6. And I have known the wins already, known them all-

Arms that we braceleted and white and bare,

(But in the lamplight, dawned with light brown hair !)

Is it perfume from a dress

That makes me so digress?

Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.

And should then presume?

And how should I begin?

Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets

And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes

Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, learning out of windows? …..

I should have been a pair of ragged claws

Scutting across the floors of silent seas.

These lines occur in the poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock composed by Eliot. Prufrock attempts many times to utter the ambition of his heart before his lady. She is among the ladies down side of the room. He does not want to go among them because all of them are well acquainted with him. Perhaps all of them know what his desire is.

Prufrock declares that he knows all ladies present in the room. He can recognize each lady by per hands. He knows who one has white or bare or braceleted hands. It means Prufrock has had intimate relations with each lady present in the room. All of them are shining like a dawn in the dim light of the lamp. He knows them by hair. All of a sudden a smell of good perfume comes to his nostrils and he enjoys it, but it is the dilemma of this perfume that it digresses him from his ambition of aching his question. His beloved is seated perhaps in a chair enlarging her arms along a table or wrapping his hands in the shawl. She may be either of the two of these ladies. He, prepares to go and put-up his question but he stops that in which manner he is going to begin his subject. He thinks that he should attract his beloved’s mind towards the loneliness of males in the dusky streets peeping down from their windows and smoking their pipes. At last he finds himself unable to ask his question and feels himself like an insect of torn claws. He can run throughout the seas but unable to do anything.

Note- Eliot narrates the hypocrite and romantic manner of making too much love relations with different ladies and unable to marry, either. It shows modern frailty.

7. And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!

Smoothed by long fingers,

Asleep…tired…or it malingers,

Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.

Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,

Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?

But though I have wept and fasted wept and prayed.

Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald)

brought in upon a platter,

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.

This stanza emerges in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock composed by TS. Eliot. The poet narrates evening like a cat sleeping peacefully in the salon. He narrates Prufrock’s cowardice to face his beloved.

Prufrock felt that afternoon and evening was passing peacefully in the salon. He found the cat of evening sleeping. It may be tired or feign to fell ill. Situation expressed of the cat by Prufrock is his own mental situation. Both of them are passing this night without any adventurous task. Prufrock thinks it better to have some tea, cake or ice-pudding so that he may collect some strength to put up his question. He will face the adventurous task of offering his proposal. He is a human being to weep, request and keep fast. His reminds the cut head of John the Baptist on account of his love-affair but he is no prophet like John. His head is bald enough and thus unsuitable for marriage. He is not a great issue of proposal. He collects his courage but soon, it vanishes. He has imagined of death for him in this matter Standing before him and making a light laughing. He is fearful of death.

Note- (i) Night has been presented as a cat.

(ii) Prufrock is afraid of death.

(iii) A trivial subject of proposal is elevated in ironic manner.

8. 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,

Would it have been worth while,

To have bitten off the matter with a smile,

To have squeezed the universe into a bail

To roll it towards some overwhelming question,

To say : 1am Lazarus, come from the dead,

Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all’-

If one, settling a pillow by her head,

Should say: That is not what I meant at all.

That is not it, at all.’

This stanza has been chosen from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock composed by T. S. Eliot. Prufrock struggles with the creatures of his own imagination to propose his beloved. He feels weak to put up his strong question. He needs some strength.

During his moral cowardice, Prufrock thinks it better that he should have. some tea or marmalade with his beloved. He will have some physical and moral power; and during his breakfast, he may propose his beloved. But he suspects on this method too. He may have his hands busy in the porcelains and tea-cups, and some solution may come out of light smile of the beloved. He needs the, strong power to compress the universe into a ball so that he may handle ii according to his wish. This task is not possible. His is overwhelming question. He feels himself so desirous to narrate his feelings as Lazarus was in Heaven that he wanted to come on earth for some moments to narrate his worldly experiences before his brother. It may be that after listening his proposal hi. beloved should reject it saying that it was her civility, not love, and she never meant to make Love or marriage with him.

Note- Prufrock needs Herculean power to express his Lazarus desire before his beloved. He is a coward and unheroic.

9. And would it have been worth It, after all,

Would it have been worth while,

After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,

After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor-

And this, and so much more?-

It is impossible to say just what I mean!

But as if a magic latem threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:

Would it have been worth while

If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,

And turning toward the window, should say:

‘That is not it at all,

That is not what I meant at all.’

These lines have been chosen from the poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock composed by T. S. Eliot. The speaker of the poem is completely void of morality. He imagines different ways to put-up his so called vital question.

He imagines one way to solve his problem and suspects on it too. I he repetition of lines shows his cowardice not to act. He imagines in Romantic and modern ways. He plans to confess his desire before his beloved after the sunset when the doors are closed and snow-fall begins at evening or he will tell it after his beloved has read her novel or taken tea. Again he imagines that he should converse with her when all the ladies present in the salon should depart from there. At present the females are walking in the salon with their skirts. He thinks that these precautions are sufficient for a suitable atmosphere to him. But on the next moment he thinks what more precautions may be entertained. He finds himself unable to seek the solution of his problem. Now he will have to lay before the sharp eyes of the ladies and they will examine his soul like an X-ray machine. He comes on the previous ways to confess his desire. He imagines that his beloved may revolt listening his proposal. She may settle her pillow or throw her shawl away in contempt. She may say, turning towards the window, that she never meant to love or marry with him. It was mere her civility for him, He misunderstood her.

Note- Prufrock is embodiment of cowardice. He plans to confess, fails to act and defends his cowardice.

10. No ! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;

Am an attendant lord one that will do

To swell a progress, start a scene or two.

Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,

Deferential, glad to be of us,

Politic, cautious, and meticulous;

Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse,

At times, indeed, almost ridiculous-

Almost at times, the Fool,

I grow old… I grow old……

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

This great stanza emerges in the poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock composed by ‘C S. Eliot. In this soliloquy, Prufrock contemplates about each possible way to confess his ambition before his beloved but he could not recollect his valour. He is a coward.

Prufrock found himself unable to talk with his beloved. His problem is a major problem as he feels. Even Prince Hamlet could not utter his inner feelings of love and malice. Prufrock does not want to become Hamlet as he met death and committed murders. Prufrock is obviously Hamlet except that of greatness. Prufrock again compares his person with Polonius who was attendant lord to throne. He worked to increase progress and felt proud of it. He did not play an important role in his life but he was advisor of prince, full of regard, disciplined, full of caution. energetic, having a sense of justice. He is happy like. Polonius if engaged in some pious duty. He bears all merits with some exceptions. At some moments he is ridiculous character and seems to be a fool. Soon, Prufrock come stock now that he is grow in gold; and how he will do in his old age to win lady-love. On the same moment he finds the solution that he will put-on the clothes of latest fashion to win confidence and lady-love. He will put on his bottom of trousers rolled.

Note- (i) Prufrock this that to be obedient and fashionable is enough to overcome the growing age and lady-love.

(ii) Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a suitable instance used by Eliot.

11. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

I have heard the mermaids singing each to each.

I do not think that they will sin to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves

Combing the white hair of the waves blown back

When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

This is the concluding stanza of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock composed by I S. Eliot. Throughout the poem, Prufrock conflicts with his own imagination to find the way of his confession of love before his beloved. He contemplates many ways but he has no moral courage.

Prufrock is old enough. Though he wears fashionable clothes to presume self-confidence and to hide his old age. But the baldness of his head explain his old age. Now he will comb his hair backward. He has no moral courage and strength to remain in constant conflict. He wants to avoid all mental burdens. Therefore, he will wear the loose trousers of woolen cloth to be easy and sportive. He will walk on the shores of the ocean. He throughout his m been in romantic love. He listened the songs of sea-girls but they ever sang 0, each other. None could sing her song to Prufrock. viz, none loved him. Now he has no hope to earn love during his old age. He has looked innumerable imaginative females swimming in the waves of the ocean combing their heir backward. He has met the visionary ladies. Now at last, the speaker of Eliot gives a message to mankind that we have been roaming in the imaginative ocean of love leaving the real path of life behind. We need an escape from this romantic sleeps. We need some real human beings to awake us from this stupidity. But the poet is not hopeful of escape, we shall drown to the sea of romantic love.

Note- Eliot narrates the soliloquy of his coward-romantic fool. It is no love-song. It depicts drowning modem society of twentieth century.