The Love Song of J. ALfred Prufrock Prompt #1

I agree more with the critical essay by Charles Walcutt. T.S Eliot's poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is somewhat confusing to read but if you focus on what he is saying and where he is and what he is doing, it's really not too complicated. Referring to these line in Eliot's poem "Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets/And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes/Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?..." Walcutt says "these otherwise puzzling lines make easy sense" which they do because they are fairly straight forward. It's true you can find a hidden meaning or allusion in every line, but Eliot's poem is really just a nervous, scattered dialogue in his head. Walcutt also describes Eliot's character of Prufrock of being "so unsure of himself" as well as being shy and feeling inadequate to accomplish what he wants to do, which is presumably "propose" to this woman. "And should I then presume?/ And how should I begin?" these lines make a strong argument for Walcutts point of view because Prufrock is second guessing himself and shows little confidence in actually proposing to this woman. Also, not mentioned much in Walcutt's essay are the very descriptive lines of Prufrock describing his insecurities about they way he looks. "With a bald spot in the middle of my hair", "My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin", and "(They will say:"But how his arms and legs are thin!")". A man who wants to have a brief sexual encounter with a woman as Bruce Hayman's essay suggests, wouldn't second guess his looks for a one time encounter. However, I do agree with Hayman that Eliot did suffer from "sexual repression", but the entire poem is hardly about a one night stand. Even though Eliot was only 30 years old when Prufrock was written, these is much more meaning behind this simple yet complex piece of literature than just a sexual desire.

**above picture is one of many images of Dante's Inferno. The epigraph of Prufrock had a quote from Inferno***

3 student papers

Highlights

1. The first essay was good, easy to read and straight forward. Nothing was too off topic.

2. The second one has a lot of good facts about the authors life and ties them into their topic which allows for the reader to have good background info.

3. The last essay i enjoyed the topic of the paper, it was something that kept me reading. I like that he used current events and recognizable names and quotes.

Low lights:
1. The first one seemed like she didn't give enough of her position, but just packed the paper with research ABOUT her position.

2. Although using big portions of an autobiography, it sometimes bogs down the paper with facts that aren't important.
3. The last essay, while interesting to me personally, was a bit casual in regards to referencing gossip in Hollywood. It could have been a bit more professional and used more appropriate language.

Overall, i think i can uses these samples to guide me in the right direction in regards to structure of my position paper. It helps to know where to place quotes and how to build a paragraph around it.