An example of romanticism is shown in the beginning of T. S Elliot’s poem ” The Love Song of J. Alfred”, in lines 5 and 6. The narrator says:
“Let us go, through certain half- deserted streets,the muttering retreats,of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels,And sawdust restaurants with oyster shells”
After this stanza he begins to speak about his later experiences in life. The context of the poem would help to make one believe that he wasn’t happy through out his life. He starts off the poem comparing the weather to a patient on anesthesia.
“And would it have been worth it, after all,After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,would it have been worth while,to have bitten off the matter with a smile, to have squeezed the universe into a ball, to roll it toward some overwhelming question”
According to this stanza, Prufrock regrets something. However he has not spoke exactly about what would have been worth it all. but it is very obvious that if he would taken the risk he speaks of he would have been happy. You can also say that it must have been something very big, being that he says:” To have squeezed the universe into a ball”. This must have meant the world to him, if he compared it to a universe.
- What is the Yellow Fog?
- What do you think his regrets may have been related to?
- Why does he compare himself to Lazarus and Prince Hamlet?
#2: I think that Prufrock’s regrets are related to his indecisiveness. All throughout the poem he is constantly questioning himself, questioning his decisions and questioning what he’s going to do next. Towards the end of the poem when he talks about himself growing old, it almost seems as though he’s looking back on his life a bit wistfully, like maybe he wished he had done some things differently or made decisions that, at the time, he didn’t make.