"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was written between 1910 and 1911, when Eliot was 23 years old and had just arrived in Europe from the United States. His thoughts were undergoing a rapid change. in process. This poem marked his complete transition to modernist poetry.
Although Eliot was very young when he wrote this poem, the work itself was already very mature. The protagonist of the poem, Prufrock, is a young man, whose specific age is not revealed in the poem. The poem describes him walking across the street at dusk to attend a party. The whole poem is his autobiography, and the entire poem is written in the first person.
Prufrock belongs to a very common type of young people in contemporary society. They are sensitive in heart, have their own ideals and pursuits, and are dissatisfied with the increasingly indifferent industrialized cities, but they have no strength to break away. While angry and painful, they ultimately had no choice but to cowardly endure the reality.
Although "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is called a love song, it is actually a tragic song and a portrayal of the protagonist's inner struggle.