"I have known the arms already, known them all"

In my opinion, there are two main ideas in the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Elliot, which are aging and women, both of which contribute to Prufrock's internal struggles. Both of these themes contribute to Prufrock's character traits and development throughout the course of the poem. First of all, his age is shown by the repetition of the concept of time, as he always says "there will be time." Although this would lead the reader to believe that he is young and has enough time to do the things he discusses, he goes on to say "With a bald spot in the middle of my hair," which is a clear indication of his discomfort about his age. Therefore, the fact that he continues to say "there will be time" can represent a sort of denial about his age, in that he tries to convince himself that he has enough time to do everything he wants. Next, he tells the reader everything he has known, which shows that he has had many experiences with people judging him and with failed love, which is most likely the reason for his timidity. Finally, Prufrock comes to terms with his age, as he ponders changing his appearance and his actions to suit his age.
Next, the women in the poem seem to be the main factor in causing his discomfort in social situations, and he continually mentions the women that "come and go, talking of Michelangelo," who clearly represent the more sophisticated women with whom he does not seem to be able to socialize. He later describes these women when talking about things that he has known, and he notes very specific details about these women which implies that he was merely watching them from a distance and was too timid to talk to them. In the last stanza, he discusses sea-girls, who basically represent the women of his dreams, and the ocean seems to be a place where he feels comfortable. However, he is awakened by reality and the true people that surround him, causing him to drown, meaning that he essentially cannot survive with these unfamiliar people.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Elliot

In this poem, it is clear that the speaker, who could possibly be J. Alfred Prufrock, is an aging man in distress about his failed attempts at love. When he says "In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo," it seems that he wonders why every woman that enters his life must leave. Also, I believe that Michelangelo could represent superior men for whom the women leave the speaker. The speaker also seems to feel that his time is running out to find love, as he says "Time to turn back and descend the stair, / With a bald spot in the middle of my hair." This shows that although he can go back to try to find love, he will not get any younger and is therefore constantly losing opportunities.
It is clear that the speaker of this poem has been through a lot and has had his share of experiences with lost love. In many instances, he talks of things that he is very familiar with, such as the "Arms that are braceleted and white and bare," which symbolizes the variety of women that he has loved. He also makes it evident that he has had his fair share of lost love, as he seems to repeatedly hear women say "That is not what I meant at all. / That is not it, at all," which seems to be the typical line spoken after each ended relationship. However, after all of this lost love, he seems to come to terms with his aging, wondering what he should do to essentially go along with the natural process.
Also, the speaker makes it clear to the reader that he is very conflicted in his thoughts, causing him to parallel William Shakespeare's character of Hamlet. As the poem progresses, his anxiety and insecurity seem to grow and grow and each stanza intensifies the feelings in the prior. For example, when he continually repeats that "There will be time..." he is showing that there is no need to rush into action. He continues to wonder "Do I dare?", showing that he is clearly having second thoughts about ever taking action, exactly like Hamlet. As he doubts himself more and more, he decides that he will turn back completely, abandoning the setting that he is in. In the next stanza, Prufrock describes all of the painful experiences that he has endured in his life, which shows the apparent cause of his inability to act. Through these two critical stanzas, it becomes apparent that Prufrock is a Hamlet figure, as he loses all confidence in himself, therefore causing him to "turn back and descend the stair."

Immigrant Blues

Immigrant Blues
by Li-Young Lee

People have been trying to kill me since I was born,
a man tells his son, trying to explain
the wisdom of learning a second tongue.

It’s an old story from the previous century
about my father and me.

The same old story from yesterday morning
about me and my son.

It’s called “Survival Strategies
and the Melancholy of Racial Assimilation.”

It’s called “Psychological Paradigms of Displaced Persons,”

called, “The Child Who’d Rather Play than Study.”

Practice until you feel
the language inside you, says the man.

But what does he know about inside and outside,
my father who was spared nothing
in spite of the languages he used?

And me, confused about the flesh and the soul,
who asked once into a telephone,
Am I inside you?

You’re always inside me, a woman answered,
at peace with the body’s finitude,
at peace with the soul’s disregard
of space and time.

Am I inside you? I asked once
lying between her legs, confused
about the body and the heart.

If you don’t believe you’re inside me, you’re not,
she answered, at peace with the body’s greed,
at peace with the heart’s bewilderment.

It’s an ancient story from yesterday evening

called “Patterns of Love in Peoples of Diaspora,”

called “Loss of the Homeplace
and the Defilement of the Beloved,”

called “I Want to Sing but I Don’t Know Any Songs.”


In my opinion, when the author discusses the idea of "being inside" means having an understanding of something, whether it be a relationship, a culture, or a concept. When a man tells the narrator, "Practice until you feel the language inside you," he means to say that the narrator must practice until he truly understands the language. With his relationship with the woman, she tells him that he is always inside her, meaning that he understands her and she feels a connection with him. Later on, when he continues to ask her if he is inside her, she tells him that he only can be if he believes it. Therefore, it is easy to see that being inside of a person, place, or culture means understanding and having a bond with something or someone.

Neglect

Neglect
R. T. Smith

Is the scent of apple boughs smoking
in the woodstove what I will remember
of the Red Delicious I brought down, ashamed

that I could not convince its limbs to render fruit?
Too much neglect will do that, skew the sap's
passage, blacken leaves, dry the bark and heart.

I should have lopped the dead limbs early
and watched each branch with a goshawk's eye,
patching with medicinal pitch, offering water,

compost and mulch, but I was too enchanted
by pear saplings, flowers and the pasture,
too callow to believe that death's inevitable

for any living being unloved, untended.
What remains is this armload of applewood
now feeding the stove's smolder. Splendor

ripens a final time in the firebox, a scarlet
harvest headed, by dawn, to embers.
Two decades of shade and blossoms - tarts

and cider, bees dazzled by the pollen,
spare elegance in ice - but what goes is gone.
Smoke is all, through this lesson in winter

regret, I've been given to remember.
Smoke, and Red Delicious apples redder
than a passing cardinal's crest or cinders.


In this poem, the narrator ponders the idea of neglect, and although he wants to reap the benefits without doing the work, he is immediately able to see the consequences of neglect. In the beginning, the narrator simply tells the reader that because he neglected his apple tree, all he was left with was a single apple and the remains of the once living tree. From this, he goes on to say what he should have done, and wishes he had watched the tree carefully in order to help it to grow rather than wilt. However, he states that he was "too enchanted by pear saplings, flowers and the pasture" to worry about his measly apple tree. By this point, it is clear that the apple tree represents something much more important--possibly a person--while the pear saplings and flowers represent other aspects of life, such as work and money. During neglect, most people don't realize that this action could, in some way or another, result in death. Just as neglect resulted in the death of the tree, in life, neglecting someone could result in the death of a relationship. While he is throwing the remains of the tree into the fire, he truly ponders the situation and realizes how remorseful he is, but sees that what's done is done.
The fact that the POET uses FREE VERSES rather than a FORM POEM gives the poem an ordinary feeling, as if the reader were right there while this was happening. Furthermore, his use of SIMILE in the poem, such as when he says "Red Delicious apples redder than a passing cardinal's crest or cinders," enhances the work by giving the reader a clear picture of what the poet tries to describe. In this same quote, he uses an ALLITERATION when he says "cardinal's crest or cinders," which makes the poem much more interesting and grabbing for the reader.
Through reading this poem, one is able to see the classic idea of giving something in order to get something. Clearly, the narrator did not give much to the tree, and as a result, all the tree gave him was one apple. In the grander scheme of things, I believe the poem mainly speaks about relationships and the importance of putting in effort to keep them alive.

Introduction to Poetry

Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.


This poem is a very good way to start our poetry unit, as it tells us how we should and should not be reading poetry. The beginning of the poem tells poetry readers to really get into the poems they are reading. For example, the first stanza tells the reader to look through the poem to 'shed some light' on the deeper meaning. Because there can be a great deal of activity in poems, it is important to dig into it because, at times, the reader won't see anything. At the end, the author states that students often try to draw out a concrete meaning for a poem, rather than leaving it open to different interpretations. Through reading this poem, I have learned the importance of letting poems speak for themselves and taking the poem for what I believe it means.