... Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot are inspired by Dante's "Inferno". It is these first lines that are called the epigraph. In "Inferno, the lines are translated as: If I thought that my reply would be to one who would ever return to the world, this flame would stay without further movement; but since none has ever returned alive from this depth, if what I hear is ... true, I answer you without fear of infamy. The speaker, Count Guido da Montefelltro, is imprisoned in the Eighth Chasm of Hell. Eliot uses the opening with an allusion to "Inferno" to provide a visual. He compares ....

• Word Count: 341
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... a perfect example: solitary, neurasthenic, overly intellectual, and utterly incapable of expressing himself to the outside world. He frequently mixes his life with his poems. The opening stanza in the poem is an epigraph from Dante's Inferno. An epigraph is a quotation set at the beginning of a literacy to suggest the theme of the poem. "The epigraph to this poem describes Profrock's ideal listener: one who is as lost as ... the speaker and will never betray to the world the content of Profrock's present confessions. In the world Prufrock describes, though, no ... for himself. His life...

• Word Count: 838
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School