Irony In Prufrock

T. S. Eliot’s celebrated poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” has earned its coveted place in the literary canon due to its manifold layers of complexity. The characteristic richness of the poem is ostensible from its first lines; indeed, the opening stanza of “Prufrock” is among the most familiar of all poetry, and the author is hailed for his vivid depiction of setting and liberal use of imagery. Eliot incorporates nuanced poetic elements-- the most marked of these being irony, figurative language, and sound devices-- in order to parody his colleagues’ picturesque, romantic poetry, thereby contending that literature often fails to reflect the crude authenticity of actual relationships. Irony is a key element of “Prufrock,” ostensible …show more content…
One instance of the author’s peculiar use of sound devices manifests in the poem’s rhyme scheme, which primarily consists of couplets. The rhyme scheme’s few irregularities coincide with particularly arresting lines, such as line 3 (which is examined in the preceding paragraph). This variation emphasizes such disturbing, interruptive lines and thereby reflects the poem’s tone. Eliot likewise manipulates the musicality of his words to capitalize on certain images; in the first stanza, his spatial description of the setting is considerably aided by the sound devices he utilizes. Early in the poem, Prufrock describes the local roads as “certain half-deserted streets” (line 4). The characterizations “certain” and “half-deserted” are united by the assonance of the “-ert” sound, a sound device which alludes to the monotony of the winding roads. Eliot’s inventive application of sound devices prevails into the stanza’s close, where the poet uses the alliterative phrase “insidious intent” to describe the roads as confusing and even labyrinthine (line 9). By these means, the author’s manipulation of sound devices-- among these rhyme scheme, assonance, and alliteration-- contributes to the passage’s ominous nature and deflates the extravagant romance often associated with …show more content…
All of these components subtly reflect the dissatisfaction associated with the speaker’s romantic relationships and thereby contrast with the audience’s grandiose expectations of romantic poetry. In dissecting the minutest of Eliot’s words and phrases, one can uncover the poem’s genius methods of proclaiming its theme, which readily explain the text’s century of literary