Poetry Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Poetry Analysis - Essay Example The title of the poem is ironic as the character who is presented in the poem is not romantic but timid, alienated, dull and anti-heroic. Even though the poem can be interpreted in innumerable ways, a careful analysis of the poem helps us trace the core idea surrounded by several underlying themes (Blythe and Sweet, 1994). The narrator is expressing his disappointment with the society he is placed in. A proper interpretation of the different aspects of imagery, theme and symbolism will help readers easily assess the narrator’s views of life. Prufrock’s deems his daily life as bleak, empty and repetitive. In the beginning of the poem the poet builds a scene that explains the indifferent mood of the narrator. Narrator explains the surroundings on an evening with a tone of despair and hopelessness. In the line 6, we see that the author considers night as ‘restless’. He further comments that streets are "tedious arguments of insidious intent" (Eliot 1915). From these comments readers can understand the narrator’s annoyance about his surroundings. Regarding his and his companion ’s destination, he comments that they are "one-night cheap hotels and sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells" (Eliot 1915). Even though the narrator is not giving a long description of his dissatisfaction with the surroundings, readers smell a mood of dissatisfaction and restlessness that radiate from the life of the narrator. The narrator’s nature needs no further explanation in the poem. The poet makes use of multiple poetic elements to illustrate the mood of the narrator that is the central theme of the poem. As we proceed along the poem we see more elements of imagery that reflects narrator’s s frustration with his surroundings. We find him speaking about the "yellow fog" which "rubs its back upon the window-panes" and the "yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window panes" (Eliot 1915). He further comments on the "soot that fall s from chimneys" (Eliot 1915). In the later part of the poem the narrator again refers to smoke as he describes the street he walks. These elements of imagery make us understand that the narrator is hazy and unconcerned and never accommodates anything. The narrator different feelings are presented in the poem. His feelings of dissatisfaction and restlessness, however, dominate his mood. Readers understand that the narrator who is getting aged will do things in a different way provided he is given a chance. In the lines 49-54, the narrator reveals the overall boredom he faces in his life. We find him telling that he has "known them all already, known them all-have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons" (Eliot 1915). It seems that the narrator thinks that his life is over and he has nothing more to offer. He continues to make comments of dissatisfaction throughout the poem. He says he is used to "the eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase" and the "arms that are bracleted and whi te and bare" (Eliot 1915). The narrator’s disillusionment of life is also evident in his remarks about time. In lines 24-34, we see him telling that time is there to "meet faces", "murder and create", have a "hundred indecisions" and a "hundred visions and revisions" (Eliot 1915). The narrator is telling this not in an optimistic manner. Readers feel that he is telling that time is plentiful only if we take good advantage of it. The narrators appear to be sure that he has failed to take