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

Write the explanation of the poem entitled “The Love Song”. (Part-1)

Ans.

EXPLANATIONS

1. S’iocredessichemiarisposta fosse

a persona the maitormnasse al mondo,

questafiammastariasenzapiuscosse.

Ma per diocheglammai di questofondo

nontomo vivo alcun s ‘i’ odoilvero,

senzatema d’ infamiatirispondo.

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 roam the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo.

This is the beginning stanza of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock composed by T. S. Eliot. The poet shows moral vacuity of the society through his speaker who was to propose his beloved either for marriage or for love affair. He wants to take her away to some lonely and romantic place to ask the important question about their union.

Prufrock proposes his beloved to go with him at evening to some hotel. H will go when the evening covers the upper region of sky with fog. He will go and sit with his lady like a patient who is conscious but unconscious of nothing. They are ready to move, at last, and they pass through the half-deserted streets. It means these streets neither are crowded nor empty. Restaurants located in these streets are dirty enough. These restaurants are hired to pass single night. They are cheap and inconvenient. People who stay in these hotels cannot take rest throughout the night mad they mutter. Oyster shells arc scattered all around in these h1rk Streets through which Prufrock is passing, are tedious. These streets are not worthy to have a conversation. People here are crowded with hypocrite intentions. These places are not suitable to ask the important and exciting question. Therefore, he checks himself lest the lady should irritate, and continues his walking He is found in the room of a salon at the next moment and finds the n busy in the conversation of Michelangelo without knowing anything about him.

Note- (i) We do not a to know whether Prufrock really makes visit or it is a soliloquy.

(ii) We do not know what question he wants to ask his beloved but because it is a love song, it may be a proposal for marriage.

(iii) The poem depicts hollowness of modern society.

2. 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 in 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.

This stanza emerges in the poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock composed by T. S. Eliot. The poet narrates hollowness and moral vacuity of Prufrock. The fog has helm narrated like a cat.

Prufrock narrates the evening of October and rough weather. The yellow fog was lingering in the atmosphere. It collided against the window. Like an animal it was rubbing it’s front part of the mouth against the window panes. It licked its tongue in the corners. The fog in the evening was present in the pools of drains. On the other hand the black smoke is also coming out from the chimneys. Prufrock desires this smoke to fall on the back of this cat of fog. All of a sudden this cat jumped up as the smoke touched its tail. It made a sudden jump from the terrace. This cat of fog and smoke lingered around the house. It found the evening of October soft and suitable and slept.

Note- (i) The poet narrates fog and smoke in metaphysical way.

(ii) Inactivity of fog is Prufrock’s own inactivity and mental fogginess.

3. And indeed there will be lime

For the yellow smoke that slides along the street

Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;

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,

And time for all the works and days of hands

That lift and drop a question on your plate;

Time for you and lime for me,

And lime yet for a hundred indecision

And for a hundred visions and revisions,

Before the taking of a toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo

These lines emerge in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock composed by T. S. Eliot. Prufrock has no courage to converse with his lady. He attempts several times to propose her but could not.

Prufrock is not in hurry to put up his question to his lady. He is still watching the yellow smoke that rubs its back 9g2inct the windows. It shows his inactivity and moral cowardice. He is fearful lest she should deny his proposal. He gets relief leaving his question for some time. There are faces enough in this mankind hiding their malice behind their smile. He cannot tolerate to conceal his question. This work is extremely difficult like creating the universe or murdering. It is a difficult job as Prufrock feels. He, at last, drops his question. There will be enough time for him and his beloved to make up mind. Before eating toast and taking tea he will think much. Women are hypocrite coming and going because they do not know anything about Michelangelo.

Note- (i) Prufrock is a coward not to ask his question.

(ii) He feels his work full of labour like murdering or creating the universe while this is not.

4. And indeed there will be time

To wonder, ‘Do I dare? and, ‘Do I dare?’

Time to turn back and descend the srair,

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair…

(They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin !”)

My mourning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,

My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin-

(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin !’)

Di I dare

Disturb the universe ?

In a minute there is time

For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

This stanza has been chosen from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock composed by T. S. Eliot. The speaker of the poem is middle-aged. bald and sleek. He hesitates to converse his beloved on the subject of marriage lest at females deride him.

Prufrock does not find himself able to ask his beloved his question. He is coward enough and he has reasons not to ask this question. He turns back from his attempt and comes down among the ladies. He withdraws his intention to talk at. His growing age, bald head and thin legs and hands check him in his so called laborious work. On the same moment he recollects his confidence that he wears fashionable coat, shirt and necktie. His tie-pin is also simple. He thinks that there should be no reason that his beloved should deny to accept hi proposal. At last, he decides to postpone his desire lest the females should deride him saying physically incapable for married life. He decides notto do this hard work. This moment it is better to think enough before dome anything.

Note- The speaker lays a great emphasis for the trivial subject.

5. 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;

I know the voices dying with a dying fall

Beneath the music from a father room.

So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all-

The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,

And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin.

When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,

Then how should I begin

To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?

And how should I presume?

This soliloquy emerges in The Love Song of J’. Alfred Prufrock composed by T. S. Eliot. The speaker of the poem is struggling with his own to propose his beloved for marriage but he finds himself incapable.

Prufrock finds all females present in the downside of the salon. He is present in the upper story. He is listening the sound of music and singing ladies from for Perhaps his beloved is also present among them. He is well known to the habit and tendency of all ladies present in the salon. He passed his whole life in observing them; He has measured his own life too. He travelled in tea-parties with these ladies. They will gaze upon him with interrogative looks if he goes among them. He is listening the lowing voice of their song. He finds himself unable to ask his question. His life, he feels, is not better than spoons. He will feel like an insect placed at the point of the pin struggling for an escape if he is gazed upon by the ladies. He again asks himself how he should express his desire before his beloved. His life is nothing now. He feels himself row, like the end of the smoked cigarette. All labour and manners of life are in vain at present.

Note- The poet depicts useless parties for love-affairs and the hollowness of modern men in search of pleasures.