Critical Thinking Blog 4

To me the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" seemed to discuss a man who was slowly dying from not living his life to the fullest. His talk of the yellow smoke that "slides along the street" (1577) seems to imply that some type of doom is coming to him. In all the poems we've looked at there seems to be this theme of the unlived life. It seems to be summed up the best in the lines, "I am no prophe - and here's no great matter;/I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker" (1579). I think that the war aspect (mind you I'm not sure when this poem was penned) played a hand in this poem. Prufrock is discussing how he hasn't done anything with his life and how he wasn't born into greatness, "I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be" (1579) and he seems to believe that if he was born into greatness things might have been more positively skewed for him. He also says that he was almost "the Fool" (1580) almost as if everyone is making fun of him and he is an idiot for not doing more. His view of modern culture and his life is that he should have risen above who he was made to be, and when he didn't he deserved the things that happened to him. My question is, do you see the theme of the unlived life here? And what are his thoughts on destiny and fate in terms of position in life?