The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock

The poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Elliot, is about a man who has lost his love. What could a poem about a man losing his chance at love and mermaids have in common? These two things may seem to be entirely unconnected, except for the author’s brief mention of mermaids at the end. Mermaids may be the most important word in the entire poem. Mermaids are mythical creature that come with a variety of stories and types. One story is that of a mermaid that will sing a song to sailors. This song will provide hope in the sailor that he will become romantically involved with the mermaid. As soon as the sailor draws close to the mermaid, the mermaid will grab his feet and drag him underwater until he drowns. Mermaid stories
Throughout the entire poem the speaker’s confidence has not been anywhere near what is needed to ask the woman for a relationship. The speaker has an extreme fear that he will lose his standing with a woman. This is proven when the speaker says, “How his hair is growing thin” (41)and “But how his arms and legs are thin.”(44). In the poem, the speaker questions himself a number of times as to whether or not he should ask the woman out, but this is a normal response for someone wanting to form a relationship. This loss of confidence would be the feeling that most sailors would feel when the mermaids would sing. This shows that the speaker was hoping to form a romantic relationship with this woman. The poem has a great deal to do with mermaids the mermaids refuse to sing to him because he is not worthy. The poem is the same as a story that a love song would present. The speaker lost his greatest chance at love because of the time his confidence was low. Mermaids sing songs of love that lead to a great loss and the poem follows that, but mermaids normally drown their victims and that is exactly how the poem ends. The voices cause the speaker to drown and end the