"No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous--
Almost, at times, the Fool."
-T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)
*Prufrock and Other Observations* (1917), a twelve-poem collection, includes *The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock*. This poem by T.S. Eliot was seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement and one of the most influential poems of modern times. It represents the thoughts of a mature man as he searches for love and meaning in an uncertain world.
