The Figurative Language In The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock

The figurative language so artfully embedded in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” furthers the at times almost tangible sense of the passing of time as the speaker lays out his story as if he were setting the table for a meal. One such instance presents itself when, in the first stanza, the speaker unceremoniously lays out the initial setting, saying, “When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table” (2-3). This simile places the poem in a peaceful setting during the night when nothing will disturb the events that take place. The comparison of the evening to a patient on a table implies that the evening seems as if it were dead as the simile provides a stark image of a dead body in a morgue or a body laying in an open coffin during a viewing party. This simile also implies that the setting is at peace, it has yet to be disturbed by the chaos of time. In contrast, later on in the poem the speaker uses a metaphor to imply that he has been alive for quite a bit of time by this point, saying, “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons” (51). This artfully used metaphor comes with the implication that not only is the speaker a habitual coffee drinker, but that he drinks so much coffee that each spoon used becomes a …show more content…
S. Eliot uses his poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” to express a universally relatable tale about the passing of time with the use of cleverly placed questions, figurative language, and changes in the mood of the poem. This masterful work of art, which may or may not potentially cause many an existential crisis, cleverly provides a means for the reader to reflect on their own life as they travel the seas of time with the speaker. Quite possibly did T.S. Eliot decide to use his voice and means of expression, his writing, to convey a tale about the one true thing that everyone and everything experiences, the passing of those grains in the sands of