STANZA 9


Prufrock believes that everyone always has and always will see him in a negative way:  formulated phrase’. In a disturbing metaphor, he compares himself to an insect whose wings are pinned to a collector’s board: ‘I am formulated, sprawling on a pin  and wriggling on the wall’. This may mean that he feels intensely uncomfortable in the glare of society, especially in female company, as seen in the following stanza.


STANZA 10


The opening lines of stanza ten could be interpreted as an exploration of how women have disappointed Prufrock because of their imperfections: ‘And I have known the arms already, known them all—/ Arms that are braceleted and white and bare/ (But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)’ However, these lines are ambiguous. The hair on the arms of the women he meets may be exciting and erotic to Prufrock, rather  the former: ‘Is it perfume from a dress/ That makes me so digress?’  this stanza illustrate Prufrock’s hesitancy once again. He seems to desire an erotic  The use of rhetorical questions shows how sexually naïve Prufrock is.


STANZA 11


Prufrock wonders how he could converse with a woman. He wonders if he should reveal his true self: ‘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?’ This image is so vivid that it could be a painting. Is it simply a scene that the speaker found poignant and moving, or is he hinting at something to do with his sexuality? Are these ‘lonely men’ homosexual in a close-minded and homophobic society that would have frowned upon them? Is Prufrock? Or are the men lonely because the women in their lives, like the women in Prufrock’s life, do not understand them?


STANZA 12


The speaker makes an odd admission: ‘I should have been a pair of ragged claws/  Comparing himself to the claws of an old crab, moving sideways in short quick steps, suggests that this is how Prufrock himself walks – perhaps people have even commented on it. Or perhaps he is moving sideways in his life, never really progressing. The use of both sibilance and onomatopoeia reinforces Prufrock’s low opinion of how he carries himself.


140 VERSE 2025


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