When I first read T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” there was a familiar sound to it –– The tone, the rhythm, the language immediately made me think of Joni Mitchell’s song “Down to You.” The stream of self-consciousness and imaginative language of both poems carries their narratives which communicate a struggle of romantic expression. Eliot’s balding narrator and Mitchell’s “constant stranger” are both in search of a meaningful romantic connection but, caught up in their anxious internal dialogue, prove incapable of finding one.
In his poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T.S. Eliot writes from the perspective of a middle-aged man. In her song, “Down to You,” Joni Mitchell’s main character does not have a distinct profile but one can assume she is talking about herself –– a woman in her thirties. Both of these characters set out on a pursuit of romantic intimacy. “Let us go you and I,” calls Eliot’s speaker to his imaginary lover (1). He and his companion are headed to a party. Mitchell’s character similarly goes “down to the pick up station” –– the bar (12).
Throughout the span of the poem, Eliot echos a little couplet –– “In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo.” Mitchell repeats a similar line in the beginning and end of her poem –– “Everything comes and goes.” Both poets comment on their inability to grasp what they desire. Eliot’s speaker watches these pretentious ladies “come and go” as they participate in proper party pleasantry –– Not only does the speaker fail to hold onto a woman, but he can’t quite grasp the seeming ease of everyday social interaction. Mitchell’s line is vague, but perhaps she is watching people come and go in the bar. “Everything comes and goes,” Mitchell waves off responsibility –– Nothing is permanent, nothing really matters. It’s all “(m)arked by lovers and styles of clothes” (Mitchell, 2). Both poets explain the impermanence of things through an observation of superficial trends –– The women at the party chit chat about high art while everything in Mitchell’s world is marked by meaningless lovers and clothing. “I am no prophet –– and here's no great matter,” Eliot restates this blasé sentiment (89). He dramatizes that he “[has] seen the moment of [his] greatness flicker” –– It is at its end. “Pleasure moves on too early,” Mitchell agrees.
The man and the woman in the two poems are both physically involved in socially intimate interactions, but are unable to emotionally involve themselves. The man is at a party surrounded by people, but spends the whole time in his head worrying about what “(t)hey will say” about that “bald spot in the middle of [his] hair” (42, 41). The woman participates in a one-night stand –– She is as physically intimate as possible with another human being yet she hides “(c)lutching the night to [her] like a fig leaf” (18). They are unable to attain the connection that they seek because they are so caught up thinking about it –– Their self-consciousness is isolating. Eliot never specifies who his speaker’s companion is, but one might infer that it is the worried voice inside his head –– not his companion but his lack-there-of, his loneliness. Mitchell’s woman also carries this with her, “[laying] down an impression/ And [her] loneliness” during her one-night stand (22-23). This is reinforced with Mitchell’s use of second person narrative –– She separates herself from the voice inside her head.
Toward the end of both the poem and the song, Eliot and Mitchell express their feelings of ennui one last time. The man begins to fantasize about “mermaids singing, each to each” (130). He imagines “the white hair of the waves blown back/ When the wind blows the water white and black” (133-134). The man dreams of this beautiful, but completely unrealistic image. His intense desire for profound human connection is what keeps him from actually attaining it. It is a much safer place inside his head and so he stays there until “human voices wake [him], and [he drowns]” (137) –– When he wakes out of his dreamworld, into the real world, he ceases to exist. His fantasy drowns him –– It keeps him from experiencing anything outside of his mundane routine of counting “coffee spoons” (52). Mitchell also transitions into somewhat of a dreamy tone calling the woman “a brute” and “an angel” –– “[She] can crawl [she] can fly too” (44-45). She too exists in a dreamworld. In both cases this dreamworld just propels them into deeper feelings of isolation –– Such is the fate of many great artists.
I had never heard this song before reading this post, and you inspired me to do so! Needless to say, I completely understand why you chose it to compare to the angst/ennui in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". You made an extremely strong point at the start of the third paragraph regarding one of the most important and largely known lines of the poem, "In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo", contingent with the idea of coming and going as a passive action. The way in which these narrators are unable to stop this passing by is representative of the idea that they don't believe that they have a way of stopping or improving it, and it's almost as if it has a sense of violence pertaining to each speaker, personally. I think it was and is important to note that the similarities also had vague differences, in that the way Mitchell says "Everything comes and goes" focuses solely on the impermanence of life, whereas Prufrock's uneasy attitude alludes exclusively to his romantic life and his fear of losing the possibility of love. You also brought us the point that neither narrator is able to see any form of importance within their lives, pertaining both to their specific lifestyle and the commotion occurring around them. "Pleasure moving on too early" is the perfect example of this, and it encapsulates your critique perfectly - there is no sense of appreciation for their lives, only a distorted view that shows things moving, in a way that dissociates the speaker with the real life and implies that these actions are happening to them, not because of them. You discussed that each individual has their insecurities, and while they're attempting to hide them, they are very aware of them and the way they impact their lives, which ties into the idea of desire as a negative force within their lives and a sense of complete isolation. Personally, I think the idea and theme of isolation is one you took and ran with - you did a wonderful job of exploring this topic!
ReplyDeleteI found your response to be very compelling, especially never having listened to the Joni Mitchell song before. I particularly enjoyed the way you synthesized both texts within the context of isolation. I think it would also be interesting to perhaps next time examine the socio-political contexts in which both these texts were written (both Eliot's and Mitchell's era) to see if there are any social forces in which this personal isolation can be framed within (i.e. What about the world around them [if anything] is driving them to feel this self-isolation?). I really enjoyed the way in which you delineated how each subject gets in their own way in breaking from that place of self-isolation, that the cause is much more internal than external. Thank you for such a wonderful blog post!
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