Introduction & Overview of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Introduction

Segments of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," often called "the first Modernist poem," appeared in the Harvard Advocate in 1906 while Eliot was an undergraduate. He later read the poem to Ezra Pound in England and Pound arranged to have it published in the prestigious American journal Poetry in June 1915. It was included in Prufrock and Other Observations, Eliot's first book of poetry, in 1917.

Eliot's interest in music is made evident in the title, but the term "love song" is used loosely here. The poem centers on the feelings and thoughts of the persona, J. Alfred Prufrock, as he walks to meet a woman for tea and considers a question he feels compelled to ask her (something along the lines of "Will you marry me?"). In fact, in this poem he never arrives at tea, let alone sings to the woman. The poem is composed...
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