I love this poem by Eliot. I feel like it easily transfers to the current time period. The speaker and whoever they are travelling with discover the dive bars and seedy hotels. Now, in 2011, it's like he's going hipster hunting. "Hey, let's go check out all the ironically cool places that are cool because they are not mainstream" is how I feel this would translate.
Anywho, I love this poem. I feel that it's ok even though it rhymes. Rhyming to me is something that is rather elementary. Elementary in the sense that very often that is what people get caught up on when writing poetry at a young age. I care more about the rhythm of a phrase and how it is read aloud. However, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock rolls off the tongue naturally. The phrasing isn't difficult; the lines are long enough that they aren't choppy, but not so long that it is hard to get them out in one breath. I'm hung up on how well it flows.
The language is not extravagant or hard to read. It is simple, but I feel like there's something I'm missing. This doesn't come across as a traditional love song. I feel like there's something that would make it an obvious thing about love, but I'm just not seeing it.
There is a disjointed feeling in this poem. The beginning stanzas are all about running and living life to the fullest; experiencing everything they can. by the time you hit the stanzas after the second couplet the speaker begins to question whether it is appropriate to go out of his standard path and explore the dive bars he would normally avoid. A sense of hopelessness settles over the poem until the very end when he shows a more flippant attitude.
This poem fascinates me.
No comments:
Post a Comment