It is often said
Prufrock and Other Observationsstands as a testimony to T. S. Eliot’s first poetical achievements. However, in light of the 1996 posthumous publication of
Inventions of the March Hare–
the unedited notebook of his juvenile poems – it is crucial to redress the proposition by arguing that
Prufrockcontains not the earliest poems, but certainly the most representative of Eliot’s early years. The title of the collection is, in this regard, self-explanatory: it hints at “Prufrock” as the emblematic modernist antihero and the poem which made the fortune of a young doctoral student of philosophy who signed himself as T. S. Eliot. Published in 1915, the first two items of the collection,
“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “Portrait of a Lady”, created…
1977 words
Citation: Lupi, Andrea. "Prufrock and Other Observations". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 June 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2530, accessed 09 November 2024.]