Love ? What Love?
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is not a poem about love, at least in any traditional sense. Rather it is a collection of the fragmented thoughts of a man without self-esteem. Far from being about love, it is about one man's inability to love (himself or the world around him.) It is the cynical statement of a man who does not believe good things will ever happen to him, or that the world has anything to offer him. The title is bitterly ironic; Prufrock does not love any body, least of all himself, (no matter how much he might aspire to the ideal of romance and passion), nor does he believe that any one could ever love him. His own life is devoid of love, so in his bitterness he brands his work a "love song". Although the poem addresses the reader directly, saying, "Let us go then, you and I," he is really just talking to himself. His is a tale of shame and insecurity that he would never dare share with another human being. …
