In June of 1915, Oxford graduate T. S. Eliot published his first professional poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in Poetry magazine, later to be placed in Prufrock and Other Observations in 1917. It is regarded as the “first modernist poem in English” (Poetry 217). The poem details the happenings of Prufrock at a crowded party as he grapples with his insecurities, fears, and desires. Prufrock wants to be intimate with a woman, but his isolation and anxiety prevents him from doing this. Furthermore, he grapples with the idea of growing old and how people will react to his outward deterioration. The poem’s target audience seems to be middle-aged, middle-class men living in the modern times, as Prufrock himself fits this profile. He seems to be going through a mid-life crisis where he regrets the chances he never takes but is too paralyzed with fear to take any action. Although the pricing for Poetry is not cited in any sources, the magazine’s goal was to promote up-and-coming poets and uphold artistic integrity, so the price was most likely affordable to the common man.  

The reception of the poem by critics and audiences alike was mostly positive. Marion Strobel of Poetry magazine described it as a “scrupulous psychological study” and praised it for the “pervasive beauty of the imagery, the rhythms used, and the nice repetitions” (Strobel 159). British poetry critic Edgar Jepson asked, “Could anything be more United States, more of the soul of that modern land, than The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock?” (Monroe 211). He claims that the sophisticated language, emotions, and visions within the piece are a yearning for beauty, something he believes the United States cannot make themselves. While the comment is a slight against the United States, Jepson sums up the anti-modernist message Eliot is attempting to evoke. As an example, consider the following passage: 

For I have known them all already, known them all: 

Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, 

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; 

I know the voices dying with a dying fall 

Beneath the music from a farther room. 

So how should I presume? 

In this section, Prufrock is describing how nothing in his life can surprise or excite him anymore. He already knows what is to be expected in civilized society, such as the tea breaks and parties he feels obliged to attend. He knows what the “evenings, mornings, afternoons” will be like because he does the same thing repeatedly every day of his life. The dying voices are the conversations of guests being drowned out due to their meaningless contents. Prufrock asks “how should I presume?” because he does not know how to carry himself in a modern society where nothing significant or profound happens. He feels isolated by his rejection of life’s monotony and anxious about the steps he should take. TikTok, a modern invention, results in similar feelings of isolation and melancholy. The addictive, short video clips can keep kids scrolling on the app for hours, cutting into the time they could be interacting with others. Smart phones already keep people from socializing, but TikTok makes it even harder for users to step away. The loneliness Prufrock feels is a symptom of TikTok in excess. Here’s another passage: 

And indeed there will be time 

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” 

Time to turn back and descend the stair, 

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair — 

(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”) 

My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, 

My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin — 

(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”) 

Here, Eliot is giving voice to the modern man’s insecurities about his public image and perception. Prufrock questions whether he should join the party with “Do I dare?” then immediately turns back in fear. Then, he lists off the parts of himself that he dislikes. He mentions his bald spot and how people will comment on his thinning hair. He compliments his own outfit with a “rich and modest” necktie only for him to undermine his confidence with an intruding thought about how people will notice his thin arms and legs. Prufrock’s severe insecurity and low self-esteem mirrors that of the children and teenagers on social media apps like TikTok. Users upload only the best videos and photos of themselves to social media platforms because they want to impress others. The young and impressionable who see the “perfect” lives of others will feel inadequate and embarrassed by the imperfection of their lives, potentially leading to anxiety and depression. Like Prufrock, kids will feel insecure about their own bodies because they think they must resemble the millionaire models they follow on the app. Eliot’s poem echoes the isolation, self-loathing, and anxieties of modernity that continue to haunt us to this day.  

 Connection: The same year Eliot published this poem, Wilfred Owen writes his first first manuscript of Dulce Et Decorum Est . Similarly to Prufock and its critique of modern times, Owen sheds light on the horrors of war and the new technologies (mustard gas and trench warfare) that make the experience a living hell. The solider within the poem recounts the gruesome death of a fellow solider and questions the narrative that dying for one's country is noble and necessary, Check it out here Wilfred Owen and the Evolution of Dulce et Decorum est | COVE (covecollective.org). 

 Works Cited: 

Eliot in his office at Faber & Gwyer, March 1926, taken by his brother Henry. 2020. T. S. Eliot as Publisher: Book Reports, Blurbs, Poets, Faber & Faber, https://tseliot.com/editorials/eliot-as-publisher. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

Eliot, T. S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Poetry Criticism, edited by Carol A. Schwartz, vol. 251, Gale, 2022, pp. 221-223. Gale Literature Criticism, link-gale-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/apps/doc/JZREIH294667752/LCO?u=iulib_iupui&sid=bookmark-LCO&xid=8bcee4b4. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024. Originally published in Poetry, vol. 6, June 1915, pp. 130-135. 

Eliot, T. S. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-a.... Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

Monroe, Harriet. “Mr. Jepson’s Slam.” Poetry, vol. 12, no. 4, 1918, pp. 208–12. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20571758. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024. 

Strobel, Marion. “Perilous Leaping.” Poetry, vol. 16, no. 3, 1920, pp. 157–59. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20572654. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024.