The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Eliot's overeducated Hamlet-to-be who never dares: measured out in coffee spoons.

Specifications & Metrics

author

T. S. Eliot

type

Modernist dramatic monologue

era

Modernism (1915)

language

English

verse form

Free verse monologue

cantos count

1

Core Principles & Analysis

• Published in Poetry magazine, Chicago, in 1915 with Pound's backing.
• Its epigraph comes from Dante's Inferno — Prufrock's confession from hell.
• 'I have measured out my life with coffee spoons' made it an instant classic.

Sources

• Wikipedia: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock