- Sep 2017
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www.poetryfoundation.org www.poetryfoundation.org
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By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown
allusion. The Odyssey. Mermaids (sirens) lure men into the sea with their voices and drown them.
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I grow old ... I grow old ...
repitition. transitioning from being a side character to being even less signficant
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Prince Hamlet
Allusion to Shakespeare's work Hamlet
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After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
Repetition
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S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse A persona che mai tornasse al mondo, Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma percioche giammai di questo fondo Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero, Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.
This excerpt is from Dante's Inferno. Translated from Italian, it means, "If I thought that my reply were given to anyone who might return to the world, this flame would stand forever still; but since never from this deep place has anyone returned alive, if what I hear is true, without fear of infamy I answer thee." Prufrock's constant state of self-doubt and overanalyzation constitutes a form of hell for him.
(I know this isn't my section but I thought this was interesting)
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If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: “That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all.”
Prufrock is referring to a scenario where he settles a pillow or takes off the shaw of the woman he is with. She, "turning toward the window" is not pleased with what Prufrock has done (he messed up/made a fool of himself). "That is not what" she "meant at all.
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the Fool
allusion. Another Shakespeare reference. Generally, the Fool plays a side character that is usually underappreciated but always acts as the voice of wisdom within the play and is often seen as a reflection of the author's actual thoughts.
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But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Prufrock appears to believe that if he were to talk to the other guests that his nerves and insecurities would be visible to others and broadcast for others to see.
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