The love-song of J.Alfred Prufrock - Essay Example

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock The beauty of poetry lies in the choice of words employed by the poet. T.S. Elliotdisplays this quality to explicitly discuss a range of themes such as sexual frustrations to desolation among others. However, it is the use of literary techniques such as allusions and repetition that make the poem great.
T.S. Elliot was a remarkable poet as displayed by his exquisite brilliance in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. His appeal is demonstrated by first, the use of an epigraph, as an embodiment of borrowing from another poet. Elliot borrowed the literary technique from Dante as a means of showing the suffering and diverse personalities possessed by his persona. He also preferred the epigraphy because of its immediacy in conveying his message of troubled being in a merciless world. However, the epic form echoes largely in successive stanzas the internal struggles affecting Prufrock as an individual. In other words, he has random thoughts that are vividly communicated in each stanza. Likewise, certain stanzas possess the use of free verse to connote Elliot’s deliberate usage of the technique as a means of breaching literary standards. He, for instance, notes in the third stanza “In the room the women come and go/Talking of Michelangelo” to portray a defiance of regular structure (Elliot 1). Additionally, it is a deeper manifestation of communicating differently. This poetic technique is supported by the poet’s use of a blank verse where there are no commas, semicolons, or hyphens at the end of every line. A blank verse makes the poem irregular and unmetered and, thus, spontaneous in the message it is intended for its audience.
Likewise, Elliot employs the use of allusion in his poem as a ploy to create emphasis and achieve a lasting rhythmic effect. For example, the poet alludes to the Greek Poet Hesiod in line 29 when observes that “Time for all the works and days of hands (Elliot 2).” Another aspect of allusion is noted in line 52 when the poet makes references to the Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. Overall, it the allusions are meant to strengthen the imagery found in each stanza. On that perspective, imagery is a demonstration of the need to build realistic images of the plight and internal struggles affecting the persona in the poem. It is also meant to establish a link between comprehending the poet’s thought structure and the intended message for the audience. Use of repetition, on the other hand, is notable with the word ‘And’ to denote the urge to take a certain action successively in the poem. In other words, Elliot’s use of repetition is to emphasize more on the theme of sexual frustration and despair that has gripped Prufrock.
It, thus, is critical to constantly, infuse poetic techniques with the message in mind to avoid confusing the reader. This is because poetry as a branch of literature conveys its message only through beautiful imagery and use of repetition in certain instances particularly stanzas.
Work Cited
Elliot, T.S. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Mason, OH: Springer. 2012. Print.
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