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

Write the summary of the poem entitled “The Love Song”.

Ans.

Summary of The Poem

The poem entitled “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” was written by T. S. Eliot sometime in the period of 1909-1912. It was published in his poetic volume, Prufrock and Other Observations (1917). It is a poem of a new kind. The central figure is a man called J. Alfred Prufrock. He is an aging man. His head has a bald spot and his body is feeble. He-,so lacks the capacity to reach a decision. But he has falleni4ov!e with a young beauty. So his problem is whether he should propose marriage to the young beauty or not.

Finally his consciousness splits into two selves, his realist self and his romantic self. His romantic self encourages him to go to the beautiful sweetheart, express his love for her, and propose marriage to her. But his realist self advises him to postpone the idea because there is a lot of time at his disposal. It also reminds him of his incapacity to express his love for her. Even if he visits the lady how will he begin his conversation? His romantic self then tells him that he should have told her of his love by now. He has lost a number of suitable occasions. He may still propose to her. Even if he has no courage to expressed his love directly, he may give her a hint of his love. But his realist self tells him that the sweetheart’s reply will be shocking to him. It will be something like this, you have misread my civility for love. I don’t love you at all. I can’t love you.

l-us realist self also reminds him that he has no power of reaching a decision, like Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It also reminds him that he is getting old. Then his romantic self suggests that he should start wearing the trousers with turn ups, part his hair behind and walk along the beach like young dandies. Then it presents him with image of sea-girls with circlets of red and brown sea-weeds present in the chambers of the sea. Thereupon both his selves are happy in the company of the sea-girls. They don’t want to come out of the imaginary sea till reality shatters their daydream.

The poem is a dramatic monologue. Prufrock is probably staying in a hotel. He thinks of his love, his weaknesses. He also thinks how he should propose to the lady. When he is lost in his thoughts, he is brought out of them by the voices of the women in the adjoining room. This happens several times. Having come out of his thoughts, he makes a comment upon the external – world, and son gets lost in his thoughts.

Thus the whole poem is made up of a ‘stream of consciousness’ chequered with some comments on the external world. It consists of 131 lines. They are written in free verse.