Blog Assignment #17: **Extra Credit**

Assignment: For 5 points extra credit (above and beyond the 10 points of extra credit possible, according to the syllabus), respond to one or more of questions below.  In particular, I'm interested in the effect of the allusions a reader finds within the poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."

Length Requirement: equivalent to one MLA-format, typed, and double-spaced page

Due Date: no later than 12/3 before midnight. That gives you the opportunity to work on it during Thanksgiving Break, if you so choose.

1.  Read the translation of the quotation in Italian from Dante's Inferno that serves as our epigraph, and return to it once you have finished the whole poem. Why do you suppose T.S. Eliot wants to begin the poem this way? How is the damned soul speaking his secrets from the flames of hell in a similar situation to J. Alfred Prufrock? How is the audience of that damned soul (Dante's persona) in a similar situation to the audience listening to J. Alfred Prufrock's frantic confessions?
2.  Explain the biblical allusion to John the Baptist in lines 81-82.
3. Explain how Prufrock is connected to Lazarus in lines 94 et passim? How does this reference to coming back from the dead also connect with Dante and the initial epigram at the beginning of the poem? 
4.  What do we make of Prufrock's protest that he is not "Prince Hamlet"? Why is it ironic or appropriate that Prufrock thinks of Hamlet as his epitome of a great hero? (Think back to Hamlet's nature in Hamlet....)
5. Who or what is "The Eternal Footman"? Why is this footman or servant snickering at Prufrock?