Reading the contextual article on "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," I undertood that Eliot was trying to tell us that he has this desire to lead the woman that he loves on this secretive journey without really telling her where they would go, even though she might desire to know, intstead of interpreting as wanting to propose to this woman. My interpretation of that particular jouney is that the author talks about life. How people really change as life goes on. The phrase "With a bald spot in the middle of my hair," made me interpret it as him growing old. We begin the journey when we are young and as time goes on, we end up growing old. He is trying to tell this woman that on this journey we will have time to do many things before growing old. While walking on this path together the setting changes, beginning the journey at night time and make a sudden leap into urban setting. Even though it is a long journey, the man will try to convice the woman of the fact that she will have time to explore great adventures in life and that there is time for everything.
I slightly disagree with the author. Here in this poem Eliot is questioning his past and how he could have accomplished his life differently. I really did not look at this poem as he wanting to propose to this woman that will be attending the tea party. My perspective would be that we as humans cannot measure our life span on this earth nor can we change our past. We can only try to live our life ot the fullest and make the best of it. Many of us might regret the past, but it is humanly impossible to change it. We can only move on and change our future by making decision that would positively benefit us.
Having read this interpretation, the author made it really come alive. I would have never been able to interpret it the way Walcutt did. The descriptive vocabulary that the author uses makes you really think twice on whether I understood the poem correctly and what Eliot was really trying to express.
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I too saw a journey throughout the poem with the man getting old. When I read the interpretation of the poem, I was surprised on how the author deciphered many of the words and the meaning that he gave to many of the lines. This was one of the poems where I almost don't like reading someone elses interpretation because it diminishes my own feelings on what I have read.
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