“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” written by T.S Eliot at the beginning of the twentieth century is perhaps one of the most ambiguous pieces of poetry ever written. It is a multilayered epic of a poem that can be analyzed from every angle. For the purpose of this essay I intend to analyze the relationship of T.S Eliot’s masterpiece to Homer’s epic The Odyssey.
The relationship between “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and The Odyssey may be initially a far fetched notion. The first stanzas of Eliot’s poem seem to have no relation to the epic, but the last stanza of the poem can be seen as a blatant allusion to The Odyssey. It begins with a description of the sea, “I have seen them riding seaward on the waves, Combing the white hair of the waves blown back”, invoking imagery that clearly relates to the description that Homer utilizes to describe the endless oceans that Odysseus conquered, “[Find Example]”. He continues this allusion with the depictions of sirens, which are one of the many perils that Odysseus has to face, “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each”. Eliot continues to finish his poem with the sirens, “By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown, Till human voices wake us and we drown”. This is a continued reference to the sirens who according to the Odyssey sing to men and drown them, the men do not realize what is going on.
These explicit references point to other instances of relation to The Odyssey. There, instances are the repetition of key phrases, native to the epic form, such as “You and I”, “The yellow fog” and “The yellow smoke”, “Known them all”, and “The room where women come and go…”. These are the structural similarities shared by the two texts, but the relationship of the two texts goes much deeper than mere structural parallels.
The first instance of intertextuality in the poem is the epigraph from Dante’s Inferno. The context of the epigram is that Virgil and Dante have descent into hell and they are speaking to Guido da Montefeltro. Guido da Montefeltro was an Italian military strategist and the lord of Urbino, meaning that he was a real person who lived during Dante’s lifetime. The interaction between Dante and Montefeltro mimics the interaction of Virgil and Ulysses (otherwise known as Odysseus). The two men, Montefeltro and Odysseus have a great deal in common. Both great military hero’s revered by their acts of victory in battle. These two parallel imply that Eliot is perhaps speaking, in his poem, to or about a character that is like Odysseus. Yet there is one significant difference between the two men who are together in the inferno, Odysseus is a legend, immortalized by literature, while Montefeltro is just another general who is often overlooked in the general study of history. This also plays into Eliot’s poem in the sense that he is perhaps speaking of such a man, but that this character (in Prufrock) can never amount to the grander of Odysseus. The second key parallel between the poem and the epic that resides in this epigraph is the descent into the underworld. It is an ominous event that is often present in ancient mythology. For instance Odysseus goes into the underworld in book 11 of The Odyssey. This connection to the epigram foreshadows further parallels between the two texts.
Death, and the return from death, explicitly comes up later on in the poem with the line, “I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”. Although this is now a reference to religion, particularly Christianity and the instance when Jesus resurrects Lazarus, it can also reference Odysseus. There is a parallel between ancient legend and myth and the bible. Odysseus is considered great not only for his deeds but for his sacrifices to the gods, he can in this a sense (honest, dedicated to the divine, humble) be compared to Lazarus. But the main comparison is that of coming back from the dead, which is a recurrent theme in Eliot’s poem.
For my final comparison I want to return to the sirens. In The Odyssey, Odysseus is the only one who dares listen to the sirens sing. Instead of blotting his ears with wax he ties himself to the mast and endures the irresistible song of the sirens. In Eliot’s poem the narrator states that he has heard the sirens singing, which according to mythology is something no man but Odysseus has ever heard, “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each”. He continues to say, “I do not think they will sing to me”. The particularity of the sirens is that they lure young sea men to their deaths, not old men. Eventually, Odysseus’ adventures are over and he has returned to Ithaca, and he is left to his fate which is to grow old beside Penelope. The narrator states that the sirens will not sing to him after he has reiterated that he is old, “I grown old…I grow old”. It is almost saying that he cannot have the adventures he once had, and he longs for them. In this manner even if not directly referencing Odysseus it speaks of a character like him, but after he has grown old and seen all there is to see.
The connections I have made between The Odyssey and “The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock” may at times seem far fetched. But certain elements cannot be ignored, such as the sirens, and the constant references to death and the return from death. Although no concrete comparison can be made there are evident parallels between the two texts.
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