Urban Life and Poetry

Poem Review # 103520

A look at the portrayal of urban life as portrayed in William Blake's "London," T.S Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," and "Ode to Frank Silvera" by Bill Bissett.

1,165 words () | 3 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This essay discusses how urban life is portrayed in three poems: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "London," and "Ode to Frank Silvera." It looks at how all three of these poems portray urban life as utterly alienating and depressing; places where people find horrible jobs, diseases, superficial social interchanges, poverty, and on and on with a depressing litany.

From the Paper:

"T.S. Eliot wrote "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" just before the outbreak of World War I. It was an anxious time for urbanites such as the lonely J. Alfred Prufrock portrayed in the poem. Prufrock belittles himself, as for example in lines like "Almost, at times, the Fool" (Eliot 119). Yet despite this, the poem seems to be primarily a serious poem about the isolation of modern humanity. Eliot paints a depressing picture of an isolated man in a city, lonely, neurotic, anxious, depressed and pathetic. This paints the city as a contradictory setting in which even though population is dense, each person may be isolated completely from her neighbours. "

Sample of Sources Used:

Eliot, T.S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Prufrock and Other Observations. London: The Egoist, Ltd, 1917.
"ode to frank silvera" Bill Bisset
William Blake. "London." Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors. 6th Ed. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1996.