"Poetry is of course not to be defined by its uses...It may effect revolutions in sensibility such as are periodically needed; may help to break up the conventional modes of perception and valuation which are perpetually forming, and make people see the world afresh, or some new part of it. It may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves, and an evasion of the visible and sensible world. But to say all this is only to say what you know already, if you have felt poetry and thought about your feelings."

----T. S. Eliot, The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism

Poetry is a way that people can express and truly relate aspects of life, love, and being. It doesn't seem logical or even forthright that an exposition, such as writing, that is so unnatural in basic human respect can be viewed as one of the more natural forms of release. Love is something that people and society deal with in every way that it can be transcribed. People see it in television, other forms of basic media, in their own lives, and through standards

Once again, Eliot uses the device of ambiguity attached to internal monologue to reflect the intimate struggle in Prufrock and lead the reader to ask themselves again "What is the 'overwhelming question' that Prufrock is asking?" Unfortunately even Prufrock himself doesn't have the answer...even recognizing the issue itself is beyond the simplicity of his mind, which he confesses by saying "I am no prophet- and here's no great matter;"(84). "The poem is replete with images of enervation and paralysis, such as the evening described as 'etherized,' immobile. Prufrock understands that he and his associates lack authenticity"(Kennedy 4). By downplaying the importance of the issue, Prufrock echoes his lack of self-worth. In fact, to Prufrock, the issue is extremely important - the fate of his life depends on it. His declaration that he isn't a prophet indicates Prufrock's view on his position in society, which he is as confused about as everything else. To interject a little history: Eliot wrote this poem during a time in which social customs, especially in Europe, were still a very important issue. There were basically two classes - rich and poor, neither of which Prufrock really fits into. Eliot's personal experiences definitely show as an influence here. Eliot creates the idea of Prufrock being caught between the two classes in the very beginning of the poem, (if not by J. Alfred Prufrock's unusual pompous/working class sounding name) when he juxtaposes the images in the monologue of "restless nights in one-night cheap hotels/ And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells"(4-5) and the women who "come and go Talking of Michelangelo"(13-14). These two images represent two completely different ways of life. The first image is of a dingy lifestyle - living among the "half-deserted streets"(4) while the second is the lifestyle that Prufrock longs to be associated with - much like the image of Michelangelo's painting on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel where God and Adam's hands are nearly touching, but not quite. "Eliot helped to set the modernist fashion for blending references to the classics with the most sordid type of realism, then expressing the blend in majestic language which seems to mock the subject"(Vendler 9). While Prufrock doesn't belong to either of these two classes completely, he does have characteristics of both. He claims to be "Full of high sentence; but a bit obtuse" while "At times, indeed, almost ridiculous-"(117-118). Being the outsider that he is, Prufrock will not be accepted by either class; even though he can clearly make the distinction between the two and recognize their members: "I know the voices dying with a dying fall/ Beneath the music from a farther room."(52-53). This Shakespearean allusion (Twelfth Night 1.1.4) - "If music be the food of love, play on...That strain again! It had a dying fall." suggests that Prufrock is just out of reach of the group of people that he wishes to be associated with in life and love, but most likely his feelings of insignificance prevent him from associating with anyone at all. He sees himself as a unique "specimen" of nature, in a class all by himself - "And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin/ When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,"(57-58). This image shown during the train of thought of his monologue suggests that not only is he an object for speculation, but he is trapped in that role; a situation which he is obviously unhappy with but has no idea how to change; he asks himself, "Then how should I begin"(59). At this point in the poem, Prufrock is beginning to feel especially detached from society and burdened by his awareness of it. He thinks "I should have been a pair of ragged claws/ Scuttling across the floors of silent seas." Eliot not only uses imagery here in the digression to create a picture of a headless crab scuttling around at the bottom of the ocean, but he uses the form of the poem itself to help emphasize his point here

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3243
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)