... Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" The very first lines of "The Love 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 ... 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 the earth that ...

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

... use in his poetry in the attempt to reproduce, or rather to arouse in the readers mind the memory of some Dantesque scene, and thus establish a relationship between the medieval inferno and modern life (What 31). Eliot saw a modern Hell plagued by mental agony, characteristic of the times of disillusion in which he lived. Thus, Prufrock is tortured by his own ... ...

• Word Count: 1019
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... to this poem very strongly convey this, Prufrock's internal battle. The epigraph of the poem is a passage from Dante Aligheri's Divine Comedy, more specifically the Inferno. The Inferno is Dante's journey through the rings of Hell in his search for enlightenment. Eliot uses this theme to support Prufrock's feelings that he is stuck in his ... own personal hell. Another similarity between the two works is the descending theme. In the Inferno, Dante travels further and further down through the rings of hell on his way up to the heavens. In The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Eliot ... ...

• Word Count: 560
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... His paper has become his passion and his lover. The epigraph of the poem is a passage from Dante Aligheri's Divine Comedy, more specifically the Inferno. The Inferno is Dante's journey through the rings of Hell in his search for enlightenment. Eliot uses this theme to support Prufrock's feelings that he is stuck ... in his own personal hell. Another similarity between the two works is the descending theme. In the Inferno, Dante travels further and further down through the rings of hell on his way up to the heavens. In The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock ... "the chambers of the sea" (129...

• Word Count: 875
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... mermaids out to sea and drowns, passively accepting the death of his long sought triumph by sinking into a somber, dispassionate existence. Eliot begins the poem with an epigraph from Dante's Inferno suggesting that Prufrock speaks only because he is sure no one will listen and what has or has not been done will remain in that state. The person whom these ... ) we are lead to believe will be either answered or revealed along this journey. Contrary to the endless circuitous steps taken by Prufrock in his dialogue, the epigraph from Dante's Inferno is essential for mirroring his descent wi...

• Word Count: 964
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... wake us, and we drown. NOTES Other poems by T. S. Eliot ... The poet's life and works ... Composition Date: February 1910 - July/August 1911. Form: irregularly rhyming. 1. The epigraph comes from the Inferno of Dante's Divine Comedy (XXVII, 61-66). Count Guido da Montefeltro, embodied in a flame, replies to Dante's question about his identity as one condemned for giving lying advice: "If I believed ... and multi-layered as Prufrock; probably the reason that this poem still remains, arguably, Eliot's most famous. The beginning of the poem is pre-empted by an excerpt from Dante's Inferno ...

• Word Count: 6460
• Approx Pages: 26
• Grade Level: High School

... and enrich the understanding of the poem's contents. The epigraph of the poem is one example of such an allusion. In his epigraph Elliot introduces a literary allusion from Dante's poem "Inferno."" In this allusion a man condemned to hell states his feelings. He states that because he is in hell and knows he shall never escape from hell he is free to ... ...

• Word Count: 548
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School