The Love Song of J.A.Prufrock is a poem written by T.S.Eliot. It belongs to the collection Prufrock and Other Observation published in 1920.

The title refers that the text is a song, so there will be a refrain and a particular rhythm. Besides it is quoted John Alfred Prufrock who probably is the narrator or the protagonist.

It is written in free verse, organized in scenes, and there is a first person narrator that express his own feelings.Besides is addressed to an hypothetical listener (the reader), so it is a dramatic monologue.

The poem opens with a Dante’s quotation taken from the XVII chant of the Inferno of Divina Commedia. It refers to Guido da Montefeltro, who is a count condemned to the “Ottava Bolgia”, the fraudulent’s one. The quotation explains the right listener for Prufrock: someone who can not refer Prufrock’s words.

The first stanza starts with “let us”, so there is a second protagonist, the reader or, in my opinion, his alter-ego. The comparison between evening and the “patient etherized”(v.9) reveals the setting is lifeless, motionless, so probably  the second hypothesis is the best. In the desolate setting there are lot of streets but all of them always lead the protagonist to the same place: the overwhelming question.

After the first stanza there is the couplet refrain. Women that speak about Michelangelo in the “one-night cheap hotels” reveal the popularization and the decline of culture these days.

The second stanza deals with the atmosphere. The “yellow fog” and “yellow smoke” suggest the difficulty to see, the protagonist is unable to see in front of him, so he is not able to take a decision.

Indeed, the third stanza starts with the expression “there will be time”. The repetition of this expression (vv.23-26-28) suggests the attitude to postpone what we have to do. This remembers also the Joyce’s concept of paralysis, as a matter of fact, the indecision make us motionless in our life. Besides, the will future tense refers that it is not sure that time will come. So the protagonist does not realize the time is passing, or, probably he does not want to admit that.

After the third stanza there is the refrain again.

The fourth stanza deals with what he will have to do in the future and also, how it will be in the future as the expression “they will say […]” suggest. In the last verses of this stanza the protagonist thinks about the consequences that present acts could have.

In the fifth stanza, as the followings two, there is an hyperbole that conveys the protagonist know everything about life, but, although he is not able to take decision. Indeed these three stanzas end with the repetition of the question “how should I presume?”.

The eighth stanza introduce the theme of doubt: can the protagonist say he has “gone at dusk through narrow streets […]”? So, can he actually say to have lived?

  
The following couplet is the answer: he should have lived.

In the tenth stanza returns the theme of passing time. The protagonist is aware about his condition, and, in a moment of honesty towards himself, he admits he have had the possibility to live, but he was afraid.

In the eleventh and twelfth stanza the protagonist tries to justify himself considering if it would have been worth if he would have choosen.

In the last lines Hamlet’s simile refers the presumption of Prufrock to be able to exactly define his identity, and so he tries do describes himself. After that he realizes he is getting older.

The last line, in particular, conveys the sad reality: when “human voices wake us”, “we drown”, we have to die.

The most important theme of this poem is the indecision related to passing time. Eliot criticizes the human inhability to take decisions. In conclusion time passes, both we deicide or both we not deicide, but we always have to die. So, to die without to take decision is like not live.