The Physical World
Prufrock compares the evening sky to this medical patient "spread out upon a table."
What is a patient etherized?
Prufrock claims he is not this Shakespearean prince, but rather an "attendant lord."
Who is Hamlet?
He famously measures out his life with these small items.
What are coffee spoons?
The recurring "yellow" entity that rubs its back and muzzle upon the window-panes.
What is the fog (or smoke)?
In the room, the women come and go, talking of this Italian Renaissance artist.
Who is Michelangelo?
This biblical figure’s head was "brought in upon a platter," a fate Prufrock fears.
Who is John the Baptist?
Prufrock wonders if he should part his hair behind and if he dares to eat this fruit.
What is a peach?
This is the specific type of poem "Prufrock" is—a speech by a single character to a silent listener.
What is a dramatic monologue?
Prufrock imagines himself as a pair of "ragged" these, scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
What are claws?
Eliot’s epigraph for the poem is taken from this 14th-century Italian epic.
What is Dante’s Inferno?
This is the "overwhelming" thing Prufrock tells the reader not to ask about.
What is the "overwhelming question"?
Prufrock realizes his life is a joke when this "Eternal" figure holds his coat and snickers at him.