Prufrock: and Other Observations

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;

Am an attendant lord, one that will do

To swell a progress, start a scene or two,

Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,

Deferential, glad to be of use,

Politic, cautious, and meticulous;

Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;

At times, indeed, almost ridiculous–

Almost, at times, the Fool.

-T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

*Prufrock and Other Observations* (1917), a twelve-poem collection, includes *The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock*. This poem by T.S. Eliot was seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement and one of the most influential poems of modern times. It represents the thoughts of a mature man as he searches for love and meaning in an uncertain world.