The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock- Eunice Ojedele

For I have known them all already, known them all:

Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;

When I got to this passage, the first thing that came to my mind was that J. Alfred Prufrock was probably stressed about something, and now he was just over it. However, what it was that he was stressed about wasn’t really clear to me. From the passage, we can tell that he feels isolated and did not have anyone around him. He says; For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons….” I feel like for you to get to this point, where the time of the day doesn’t mean much, it either, either something is serving as an hindrance, or we have tried so much, and now we can’t anymore. tired.

I chose this passage, because it goes back to our present situation where we are under compulsory lock-down because of the pandemic, and there’s nothing we can do for now. Right now, most of us feel tired and are not motivated to do anything because we feel stuck at home, and like him, most of us have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons…” The time of the day doesn’t hold much value to us as it should, and most of us spend our time doing what we can do, and not exactly what we love to do.

T.S. Elliot uses symbolism in this work when he says; I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;”. That in my opinion just goes to show how little he thinks his existence has meant and how small in value it is. We could also say he uses metaphor when he says he measures his life with a coffee spoon as if though his life was coffee, bitter in taste. T.S Elliot also uses rhyme schemes in this passage and throughout the play. I believe he does this to make the poem have a smooth and interesting feel, that makes you want to continue reading despite its complexity.  He also repeats words in this passage like the word “I”, “Known”, and “Have”, which to me was his way of making it known to us the readers that it was really personal.

From what I personally observed from reading this piece, and after I did my research, I could say that this piece is about the inner monologue of Prufrock, who is plagued by feelings of alienation and inadequacy and is unable to take decisive action (Poem Analysis). The lines in this passage, further elaborate on how plagued he was by his feeling of alienation which connects back to the central concerns of the poem. He felt so bad that it didn’t matter what time of the day it was, it all felt the same, lonely.

https://poemanalysis.com/t-s-eliot/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock