Question

the love song of j. alfred prufrock
ts eliot • 1915
stio credesse che mia risposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
ma percioche giammai di questa fondo
non torno vivo alcun, siodo il vero,
senza tema dinfamia ti rispondo.
1
let us go then, you and i,
when the evening is spread out against the sky
like a patient etherized upon a table;
let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
5
the muttering retreats
of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
and sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
streets that follow like a tedious argument
of insidious intent.
10
to lead you to an overwhelming question...
oh, do not ask, \what is it?\
let us go and make our visit.
in the room the women come and go
talking of michelangelo.
15
the yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
the yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,

1. epigraph: read the translation of the epigraph in the

footnotes. what is one possible connection between
the epigraph and the poem?

Explanation:

The epigraph is from Dante's Inferno, where Guido da Montefeltro speaks to Dante in Hell, believing Dante will never return to the living world. Similarly, Prufrock feels isolated and trapped in his own "hell" of indecision and social anxiety. Both speakers share a sense of confession and a belief that their words will not reach a wider, judgmental audience.

Answer:

Both the epigraph's speaker (in a sense of eternal isolation in Hell) and Prufrock (in his own psychological isolation) share a feeling of confessing to someone who, they believe, won't (or can't) truly expose their innermost thoughts to a broader, judgmental world.