Knowledge and Experience in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Author(s): Donald J. Childs
Reviewed work(s):
Source: ELH, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Autumn, 1988), pp. 685-699
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2873189 .
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KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE IN ""THE LOVE
SONG OF J.ALFRED PRUFROCK"
BY DONALD J.CHILDS
Butwhata poemmeansis as muchwhatit meansto othersas
whatitmeanstotheauthor;andindeed,in thecourseoftimea
poetmaybecomemerelya readerin respectto his ownworks,
merely
his originalmeaning-orwithoutforgetting,
forgetting
changing.
-T. S. Eliot,The Use ofPoetryand theUse ofCriticism
scholarsand criticsbecameawareofF. H. Bradley's
Although
latepointin thelatter's
uponT. S. Eliotat a relatively
influence
has now been
betweenthetwowriters
career,therelationship
SmidtandHugh
The studiesofKristian
documented.
extensively
onthissubjectin the
ofbooksandarticles
Kenner
ledtoa number
theefforts
through
Thisresearch
culminated,
largely
earlysixties.1
in 1964ofKnowledge
and
ofAnneC. Bolgan,in thepublication
Experiencein the Philosophyof F. H. Bradley-in effect,Eliot's
in
andtheObjectsofKnowledge
1916dissertation
on"Experience
on
byhisarticles
supplemented
ofF. H. Bradley,"
thePhilosophy
the
BradleyandLeibnitzin TheMonist(1916).2Notsurprisingly,
for
onlyincreasedenthusiasm
ofEliot'sdissertation
publication
and poetry.
uponhis criticism
researchintoBradley'sinfluence
the
onthesubjectthroughout
Indeed,so muchhasbeenpublished
for
the
Times
recent
reviewer
thata
andeighties
seventies,
sixties,
of
bythesheeramount
perhapsintimidated
Literary
Supplement,
Reit
todismissmostof as unimportant.
attempted
suchresearch,
that
andEliot,he suggested
bookon Bradley
viewingyetanother
its
and pervasive
pres"The pioneerworkon Eliot'sphilosophy
inTheInvisiblePoet
wasdonebyHughKenner
enceinhispoetry
tobe added."'He
andthereis nota verygreatdeal ofimportance
hadadvanced
thatthebookhe wasreviewing
didallow,however,
sense
the subjectbeyondKennerin providing"'a muchstronger
is
imbuedwithphilosophy
thanwe hadbeforeofhowprofoundly
in
fact,
has
been
This,
as
critic
and
both
Eliot'simagination,
poet."3
thatthereviewer
so easily
oftheresearch
thegeneralachievement
Eliot's
to
no
one
can
imaginalongerhope comprehend
dismissed;
685
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tive achievements withoutalso comprehendingBradley's pervasive influenceupon them.
In the end, then,scholarsand criticshave been tryingto prove
what Eliot announced in the verybeginning:
artof
Few will evertakethe pains to studythe consummate
Bradley'sstyle,thefinestphilosophicstylein ourlanguage,in
whichacuteintellectand passionatefeelingpreservea classic
patientyearsto theunbalance:onlythosewhowill surrender
ofhismeaning.Butuponthesefew,bothlivingand
derstanding
and completeopthatmysterious
perform
unborn,his writings
only,
ofthought
notone department
erationwhichtransmutes
toneoftheirbeing.4
and emotional
butthewholeintellectual
Those who have taken Eliot's implied advice here and studied
Bradley(and studied him withEliot in mind) have concluded that
virtuallyeverythingEliot wroteafterencounteringBradley's philosophy is colored by it. The metaphorhere is Kenner's: "it is
preciselyas a stain,impartingcolor to all else thatpasses through,
thatBradleyis mostdiscerniblein Eliot's poetic sensibility."5Eliot's firstimportantpoem, however, "The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock,"would seem to be uncolored by Bradley's thought,for
the poem was completedbetween 1910 and 1911, and Eliot apparently did not begin his study of Bradley until 1913. As Kenner
observes,"thereis no evidence thatEliot paid [Bradley]any attention until afterhe had written'Prufrock'and 'Portraitof a Lady.'
(He did not buy his own copy of Appearance and Reality until
mid-1913)."6In fact,Eliot may have been reading Bradley before
1913, but it is not likely thathe was reading him before he comGrantingall this,however,I would nonetheless
posed "Prufrock."7
like to argue that"The Love Song ofJ.AlfredPrufrock"is a poem
closely linked to Eliot's work on Bradley. It is a poem thatinfluences Eliot's understandingof Bradley,and it is also a poem that
Eliot comes to see in a Bradleyanlight.In fact,the poem offersa
reading of the dissertationand the dissertationa reading of the
poem.
That "The Love Song ofJ.AlfredPrufrock"was on Eliot's mind
in 1915 and 1916, as he was completinghis dissertation,seems
certain.He sent the finisheddissertationto Harvardin Januaryor
Februaryof 1916. In Januaryof 1915, in a letterto HarrietMonroe
attemptingto persuade her to publish "Prufrock,"Ezra Pound explained thatEliot would not agree to the deletion ofthe "Hamlet"
verse paragraph.8Pound had been campaigning,and would con-
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"TheLove SongofJ.AlfredPrufrock"
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tinue to campaignforthe nextsix months,to have HarrietMonroe
publish the poem (which she did in Juneof 1915). As the letterof
January1915 suggests,Pound probablykept Eliot informedof his
progresswith Monroe while the campaignwas under way. In August,Pound sentMonroeanotherbatchofEliot's poems. Finally,in
June of 1916, Eliot himselfwrote to Monroe, explaining that he
thought"Prufrock"betterthan his otherpoems writtenbetween
itwould seem thatEliot
1909 and 1911.9By thispoint,furthermore,
froma period ofpoetic sterilityso severe thathe felt
was suffering
again produce anythingas good as "Prufrock."He
never
might
he
wroteto his brotherin Septemberof 1916, in fact,to say that"The
Love Song of J. AlfredPrufrock"mightprove to be his "swansong."10
Let us go then,youand I,
Whentheeveningis spreadoutagainstthesky
Like a patientetherisedupona table.11
Critics have made these opening lines to "The Love Song of J.
AlfredPrufrock"the cornerstoneoftheirreadingsofthepoem. The
centralpreoccupationhas been with the notoriousdistinctionbetween "you and I." Accordingto George Williamson,the reference
ofthe pronoun"you" is not at all clear: "The 'I' is the speaker,but
who is the 'you' addressed? The titlewould suggesta lady,but the
epigraphsuggestsa scene out ofthe world,on a submergedlevel."
Grover Smith, however, explains the reference of the pronoun
Cyou and suggeststhatthe distinctionbetween "you and I" is the
dialectic: "By a distinctionbetween
forthe Prufrockian
framework
between his thinking,sensi'I' and 'you,' [Prufrock]differentiates
.
tive characterand his outwardself . . He is addressing,as iflookhis whole public personality.His motiveseems to
ing intoa mirror,
be to repudiate the inertself,which cannot act, and to assert his
ofthepoem,JoyceMeeks Jones
will." In herJungianinterpretation
reaches a similarconclusion: Prufrock,she argues, is an extrovert
"who is unable to resolve the conflictbetween the demands of his
own individuality,and those ofhis persona,or social mask. In consequence, he struggles helplessly in an eternal hell of selfestrangementand moralindecision." Carol T. ChristfindsthatPrufrock's"fictionsinsulate and preserve him in a solipsistic dream
world,a chamberofthe sea." "Prufrock,"she writes,"begins with
a definiteaddress and invitation... but ... so deliberatelyavoids
definingits events and audience that we question whether the
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687
poemrecords
anyinterchange
witha worldexternal
tothespeaker'sconsciousness."
HughKennerlookstotheepigraph
fora clue
as to thefunction
of"youand I"; he sees in thepoema liaison
betweenDante'sjourney
through
hell,ledbyVirgil,
andPrufrock's
journey
through
thecitystreets
led by"you"-"a liaisonbetween
[Prufrock's]
situation
andDante'swhichis all thesmoother
forthe
reflective,
lingering
rhythm
oftheopeningphrase."JosephChiari
developsa smiliar
line:"youandI" arepartof"aninternal
monologuewhichis notmeanttobe heard,"
justas Guidode Montefeltro'swordsarenottobe takenbacktothelandoftheliving."Obviouslyitis notonlytheeveningwhichis etherized
upona table
butalsothespeaker,
whois in a kindofinferno-like
situation."12
ForF. 0. Matthiessen,
however,
thequestionis academic.That
is,thefirst
threelinesof"Prufrock"
aretooacademic;
theyare"too
studied."The conceitsin thelinesin questionhavethelookof
intoexistence
"coming
notbecausethepoet'smindhasactually
felt
keenlyan unexpected
similarity
betweenunlikesbutas though
he
tooconsciously
setouttoshockthereader."Theproblem
forMatthiessen
liesnotso muchinthedistinction
between"youandI" as
inthecomparison
betweentheeveningspreadoutagainst
thesky
andthepatient
etherized
upona table:"Eventhough
thereader
canperceivewherein
thecomparison
holds,he maystillhavethe
sensation
thatitis toointellectually
manipulated,
notsufficiently
felt."13
I wouldagreewithMatthiessen
thattheopeningmetaphors
are
tosomeextent
"intellectually
I wouldperhapsdismanipulated."
agreewithhischargethattheyare"notsufficiently
felt."As Eliot
himself
pointed
outinhisdissertation,
"Thereisnogreater
mistake
thanto thinkthatfeelingand thought
are exclusive-that
those
mostandbestarenotalsothosecapableofthe
beingswhichthink
mostfeeling"
(18).I wouldobviously
agreewithall ofthesescholarsandcritics
thatthe"youandI," the"evening
spreadoutagainst
thesky,"and the"patientetherised
upona table"are essential
inanyinterpretation
elements
of"TheLoveSongofJ.Alfred
Prufrock."
Butwhatconcerns
meherearetheimplications
ofthedistinction
between"youandI" forthepoemandthedissertation
as
readings
ofeachother.
ThatEliotactually
recalledthefirst
threelinesofthepoeminthe
veryactofwriting
thedissertation
is suggested
byhisuse ofthe
imagethatbegins"TheLoveSongofJ.Alfred
imPrufrock"-the
age ofa patientspreadoutupona table.The physician-patient
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inwhichthesubjectorobserver
metaphor,
is thephysician
andthe
objectorthing
observed
thepatient,
is oneofEliot'sfavorites.
The
Prufrockian
patient
appearsin thedissertation:
Ouronlywayofshowing
thatweareattending
toanobjectis to
showthatitandourself
areindependent
entities,
andtodo this
we musthavenames.So thatthepointat whichbehaviour
changes
intomental
lifeis essentially
itis a question
indefinite;
ofinterpretation
whether
... expression
whichisrepeated
atthe
approach
ofthesameobject... is behaviour
or language.In
either
itis continuous
case,I insist,
withtheobject;inthefirst
casebecausewehavenoobject(except
from
thepointofviewof
theobserver,
whichmustnotbe confused
withthatofthepatient
underexamination),
andin thesecondcase becauseit is languagethatgivesus objectsrather
thanmere'passions.
(133)
Therelation
betweensubjectas physician
or"observer"
andobject
as patient
is central
tounderstanding
boththedissertation
andthe
poem.In thispassage,Eliotarguesthatsubjectandobjectarecontinuous
exceptfrom
thepointofviewofan observer
(another
subjectthatis a truly
subjective
self)whois abletoregard
theoriginal
subject
as anobject(anobjective
self-in other
words,
as a "patient
underexamination."
The consciousness
thatis thespeaking
voice
in "Prufrock"
is apparently
justsuchan observer,
articulating
the
discontinuity
between"youandI." In thedissertation's
the
terms,
Prufrockian
observer
is nottheselfas objector patient(the"I"
observed),
butthetrulysubjective
selfthatis able to distinguish
betweenobjectandobjectiveself(thatis,between"youand I").
Thatwhichis "spreadout"and "etherisedupona table,"in short,
is notjusttheevening,butalso theselfas object.Prufrock,
as
is
the
object,
patient.
Andyetitis hisabsolutely
selfthat
subjective
is theobserver
or physician.
Justas thereis no patientwithout
physician,
so inthepoemthereis no "you without
"I,'"andso in
thedissertation
thereis no languageor objectwithout
observer.
Themetaphysical
andepistemological
ofthePrufrockimplications
ianmetaphor,
itseems,unfold
in thedissertation.
Eliotdevelopsthesamemedicalmetaphor
in his earlyessay
"The Functionof Criticism"
and analysis
(1923):"Comparison
needonlythecadavers
onthetable,"hewrites,
"butinterpretation
is alwaysproducing
partsofthebodyfrom
itspockets,
andfixing
theminplace."14
Eliot'sconcern
hereis thesameas thatexpressed
in the epistemological
context
ofhis dissertation:
he findsthat
DonaldJ.Childs
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689
second
necessary
an epistemologically
introduces
interpretation
pointofview,buthe alsofindsthatsucha pointofviewinevitably
relative
tothepointofview
truth-atruth
onlya relative
produces
of
orreader.Bytheterms
thepointofviewofthecritic
introduced,
a coroner
Eliot'smetaphor,
then,thecriticorreaderis inevitably
notwithlifeorlanguage
(dealingwithdeadfactordeadlanguage,
is worse,
orreaderas interpreter
butthecritic
as livedandliving),
coroner
whosuppliesthebodyoffactor
forhe orsheis a dishonest
ofhisor
thepockets
partsfrom
thebodyofthetextwithitsmissing
themedical
in 1923,therefore,
As elaborated
herinterpretation.
and the
questin "Prufrock"
is stillpartoftheoriginal
metaphor
pointofviewon therelation
todiscover
an objective
dissertation
acbetweentheselfanditsobjects-itsobjectsbeingdetermined,
In thepoem,thedissertabylanguage.
tothedissertation,
cording
object.The
tion,andtheessay,thebodyonthetableis a linguistic
(Anonymous)
(Eliot),andthecritic
thephilosopher
poet(Prufrock),
and in each case thefateofthepatientis in
are all physicians,
questionremains
overwhelming
doubt.In 1923,then,Prufrock's
betweensubject
"Whatis thenatureoftherelation
unanswered:
andobject?"
The samemedicalmetaphor
appearsin FourQuartets:
The woundedsurgeonpliesthesteel
part;
Thatquestionsthedistempered
Beneaththebleedinghandswe feel
The sharpcompassionofthehealer'sart
Resolvingtheenigmaofthefeverchart.
(181)
in the1940s,ofcourse,
ofEliot'swriting
In theChristian
context
has becomeChrist.For Eliotat thistime,poetry,
thephysician
(ortheactofreadingin general)begin
andcriticism
philosophy,
the
remains
pointofview.Butthepatient
andendin a Christian
in
humanself,theselfas objectified language(whether
individual
thelanguageofFourQuartetsor thelanguageoftheChristian
and"TheFuncthedissertation,
Andjustas in"Prufrock,"
liturgy).
betweenphyso in FourQuartets
therelation
tionofCriticism,"
is all important.
Uponit-thatis,upontherelasicianandpatient
and
andobject,
language
selves,subject
tionbetweenselfandother
of
the
nature
and
reality.
observer
(orpoem reader)-depends very
intothenatureofthis
theElioticinquiry
As always,furthermore,
aboutthe
but
questions
answers,
questions:
relation
not
produces
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nature
oftherelation
betweendistempered
partandwoundedsurgeon,betweencadaverand coroner,
betweenpatientand physician,between
language
andobserver-in
short,
questions
aboutthe
relationship
between"youandI." I wouldsuggest,
then,thatthe
metaphor
in"Prufrock"
thatintroduces
thisfundamental
metaphorical,metaphysical,
and epistemological
relationgathers
muchof
itssubsequent
significance
from
theimplications
fortherelation
in Eliot'sdissertation
betweensubjectand objectsuggested
on
Bradley.
in Knowledge
The Prufrockian
echooftheword"patient"
and
Experience
is admittedly
notveryloud,buttheechoofthePrufrockian
words"spreadout"and "table"is: "We can never...
a theoretical
wholly
explainthepractical
worldfrom
pointofview,"
Eliotsuggests,
"becausethisworldis whatit is byreasonofthe
practical
pointofviewandtheworldwhichwe trytoexplainis a
worldspreadoutupona table-simply
there!"(136).Similarly,
in
that
his conclusion,
he remindshis readerthat"Theoretically,
us forpurecontemplawhichwe knowis merely
spreadoutbefore
tion,and thesubject,theI, or theself,is no moreconsciously
thanis theinter-cellular
action"(154).
present
Whatwerethefirst
threelinesof"The Love SongofJ.Alfred
Prufrock"
bringing
backtomind?I suggest
thatbyrecalling
them
in 1915Eliotwas reevaluating
thephilosophy
embodiedin the
attitude
to
poem.In theselines,thatis,we findthephilosophical
therelationship
between"youandI" thatEliotheldin 1910and
1911,anattitude
thatseemstohavebeeninformed
byBergsonism.
that
Overthirty
thepoem,Eliottoldan inquirer
yearsafter
writing
he was a Bergsonian
whenhe composed"The Love SongofJ.
dimenAlfred
Prufrock."'5
PiersGray,exploring
theBergsonian
sionsofthepoem,notesthatin theopeninglines"theworld,at
leastin so faras theevening
ofit,is ina state
maybe synecdochic
ofdeepunconsciousness."16
In theBergsonian
he points
universe,
forreallife,foritis not
out,sucha stateholdsthegreatest
potential
consciousness.
to
boundbythepractical,
goal-oriented
According
itsuse ofmemory
tothosememconsciousness
restricts
Bergson,
should
orieswhichbearon thepresent
goal:"thata recollection
reappearin consciousness,
it is necessary
thatit shoulddescend
theheights
from
ofpurememory
downtotheprecisepointwhere
actionis taking
thepresent,"
place.""Itis from
Bergson
continues,
comestheappealtowhichmemory
anditis from
"'that
responds,
thesensori-motor
elements
ofpresentactionthata memory
borDonaldJ. Childs
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691
rows the warmthwhich gives it life."17Only in an unconscious
state,then,can pure memory-in which resides the total of one's
past-reappear. "To be etherized,"Graythereforeconcludes,"is to
be potentiallyopen to the totalityof one's past life."118The first
threelines ofthe poem, therefore,
suggestthe etherizedabdication
of goal-orientedconsciousness, an abdication thatallows the uncontrolleddescent from"pure memory"ofthe particularmemories
and images thathaunt Prufrockthroughoutthe poem and thwart
action at everyturn.As J.S. Brookerobserves, "Prufrock,not the
evening, is etherized upon a table. Like everythingelse in the
poem, the tired,sleepy evening is an aspect ofPrufrock'smind."'9
But the firstthreelines ofthe poem are even moreclosely related
to Eliot's studyof Bergsonthanthisbriefanalysis of certainBergsonian concepts might suggest. One finds the metaphor of the
world "spread out" in space in Time and Free Will, Bergson's first
book and the book Eliot quoted mostfrequentlywhen writingon
Bergson. "Our conceptionof number,"Bergson complains,"ends
in spreading out in space everything which can be directly
counted." The problem with westernphilosophy,he suggests,is
that we have importedthe quantifiableaspects of that which is
externaland materialintoour notionsof what is properlyunquantifiable,thatwhich is internaland immaterial:the unextended is
thoughtof as thoughit were extended; in otherwords,it is spread
out in space. In the end, the externalityof material objects, he
explains, "spreads into the depths of consciousness." Consciousofstates,but a pure,
ness, accordingto Bergson,is nota multiplicity
undifferentiated
duration;in fact,a pluralityof conscious statesis
not observable,he argues,unless consciousness is "spread out" in
space.20
Eliot picked up the same metaphorwhen as a graduatestudentin
philosophyat Harvardhe wroteabout Bergson:"Berkeleyanspace,
I believe, as adapted by Bergsonbecomes, on the one hand, extension; and Bergson'sspace is the Berkeleyanpure space; forBerkeley non-existent;forBergsonthe homogeneousmediumspread out
by our understandingas a substratumforextrinsicrelations."The
image is as pervasivein Eliot's understandingofBergsonas it is in
Bergson's writing:"The 'travail utilaire' of the 'esprit,'" Eliot
writes,"consists in a kind of refractionof pure duration across
space."21 There can be no doubt, then,thatthe opening lines of
"The Love Song ofJ.AlfredPrufrock"establisha Bergsoniancontextforthe relationbetween "you and I," skyand evening,patient
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andphysician,
andobjectandsubject.
Andofcoursetherelation
is
false,thedistinction
In Bergson's
artificial.
world,
reality
is a timeless, distinctionless,
pureduration.
The falsenessof Prufrock's
world,
therefore,
stemsinpartfrom
thefalseness
ofthecategorical
distinctions
(between"youand I") by whichhis consciousness
proceeds.
fourorfiveyearsafter
What,then,did Eliotsee in "Prufrock"
it?How did he himself
completing
readtheopeninglinesofthe
poemin 1915and 1916?Whatlightdoes thedissertation
throw
uponEliot'slaterinterpretation
ofthedistinction
between"you
andI"? In short,
whatwasBradley's
influence
uponEliot'sreading
of"The LoveSongofJ.Alfred
Prufrock"?
In noting
inhisdissertation
thattheepistemologist's
worldis "a
worldspreadoutupona table-simply
Eliotdistinguishes
there,"
betweentheepistemologically
theoretical
andpractical
pointsof
view.Reality,
he suggests,
is "anapproximate
a conconstruction,
in itsnature"(136).In otherwords,
struction
essentially
practical
reality
is a function
ofpreconscious
self-interest.
The attempt
to
stepbeyondthispointofview,thatis,theattempt
at objectivity,
merelyresultsin confusion,
forone mustthencomprehend
the
In theend,"We
internal
from
thepointofviewoftheexternal.
thatwhathasgrown
a purelypractical
attitude
canforget
up from
notbe explained
bya purely
theoretical
(136).In short,
[attitude]"
"thisworldis whatitis byreasonofthepractical
pointofview,"
whereas
theworldonetriestoexplainbyepistemological
is
theory
placedbefore
themindas "a worldspreadoutupona table simply
in otherwords,is inevitably
there"(136).The epistemologist,
a
dishonest
of
the
from
his
or
her
coroner,
producing
parts
body
pocketsandfixing
theminplacetosuithisorherculturally
andhistoricallyrelative
interpretation.
In rereading
"Prufrock"
ofhis dissertation,
duringthewriting
thatPrufrock's
therefore,
Eliotdiscovered
dilemmais theepistemologist's
dilemma:
howdoesone reconcile
andtheory,
practice
actionandcontemplation?
On theonehand,Prufrock
or
responds,
wishestorespond,
toaction("Letus gothen"),
totheexhortation
he contemplates-contemplates
that
himself,
while,on theother,
is, as thoughhe were spreadoutupon an examination
table.The
is betweentheworldas itexistsaccording
toPrufrock's
disjunction
practical
pointofviewandtheworldas itexistsbeyondhisimmeinterest-the
worldoftheory,
practical
"spreadoutupona
diate,
DonaldJ.Childs
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693
table-simply there." The disjunction,in otherwords,is between
the practicalpointofview interestedin women "Talking of Michelangelo" (13) and "Armsthatare braceleted and white and bare /
(But in the lamplight,downed withlightbrownhair!)" (15), and the
theoreticalor absolute point of view of "Lazarus, come fromthe
dead, / Come back to tell you all" (16)-presumably to tell of the
absolute beyond the practicalworld.
Eliot also seems to have noted, while writinghis dissertation,
thatthe desire to contemplatethe world spread out upon a table
produces in both Bradley'sand Prufrock'sworlds a distinctionbetween "you and I." In theory,Eliot notes (using the Prufrockian
metaphor),"thatwhichwe knowis merelyspread out beforeus for
pure contemplation,and the subject,the I, or the self,is no more
consciouslypresentthanis the inter-cellularaction" (154). In practice, however,this preoccupationwith a theoreticalworld spread
out upon a table requires a relationbetween the world,as object,
and the self, as object- "a relation which is theoreticaland not
merelyactual,in the sense thatthe selfas a termcapable ofrelation
withothertermsis a construction"(155). That is, the selfthatdoes
not immediatelylive or feel its experience is an object; the self as
object (the "patientunderexamination")is relatedto experienceas
object withinthe whole thatis the self as subject. But "this self
which is objectifiedand related is continuousand feltto be continuous with the self which is subject and not an element in that
which is known" (155).
Two selves, therefore,are necessaryto any attemptto know the
world thatis simplythere,spread out upon a table. And yet one
mustknow more thanone's objective and subjective selves before
one can determinethe nature of thatworld; one must also know
otherselves. On the one hand, granted,the self "seems to depend
upon a world which in turndepends upon it" (146). This is the
substanceofthe quotationfromBradley'sAppearance and Reality
thatEliot includes in the infamousnotes to The Waste Land: "My
external sensations are no less private to my self than are my
thoughtsor myfeelings.In eithercase my experience fallswithin
my own circle, a circle closed on the outside; and, with all its
elements alike, every sphere is opaque to the otherswhich surround it.... In brief,regardedas an existence which appears in a
soul, the whole world for each is peculiar and private to that
soul."22 On the otherhand, however, Eliot affirmsthat "the self
depends as well upon otherselves; it is not given as a directexpe-
694
"TheLove SongofJ.AlfredPrufrock"
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rience,butis an interpretation
ofexperience
by interaction
with
"
otherselves"(146).We thus cometo interpret
ourownexperienceas theattention
toa worldofobjects,
as we feelobscurely
an
identity
betweentheexperiences
ofothercentres[orselves]and
ourown"(143).Itis thisfeltidentity,
"whichgradEliotsuggests,
uallyshapesitselfintotheexternal
world"(143).
It is presumably
thedefective
relation
ofselvesin "Prufrock,"
thedefective
relation
between"youandI," thatbrought
thepoem
tomindas Eliotwrotehisdissertation.
Prufrock's
first
distinction,
is
and
and
inevitable,
toboth
between"you I," necessary
according
Prufrock's
Bradley
andEliot.Ultimately,
however,
self,both"you
withotherselves-thisis the"overwhelming
andI," mustinteract
ofexperience
theidentity
that
tobegintoforge
question"-inorder
will"gradually
world."In adapting
shapeitselfintotheexternal
totheBradleyan
context
thePrufrockian
metaphor
ofhisdissertaandBradleyan
tion,EliotseemstorealizethatboththePrufrockian
ofselveswithinthem.Ironiuniverses
dependupontherelation
cally,then,Prufrock's
"overwhelming
question"is justas importantas he thinksit is. The natureoftheuniverseactuallydoes
it.
ornothe disturbs
dependonwhether
a similar
In TheMatrix
Sanford
Schwartz
ofModernism,
suggests
tothepoem.He findsthattheself-conscious
approach
personaeof
with
Eliot'searlypoems"constantly
agonizeovertheirencounters
conotherpersons."
He explains
thesignificance
ofthepersonae's
withothersin termsderivedfrom
Eliot'sdissertation:
frontations
ofothbetweentheirexternal
"Theyaresuspended
apprehension
ers,whomtheyknowdirectly
through
observable
behaviour
alone,
ofothers
as activecenters
ofconandtheirinternal
apprehension
a subject/object
Thesepersonaealso experience
sciousness.
split
andconwithin
themselves.
Theyareat oncedetachedobservers
oftheirownparticipation
inthesocial
ventional
agents,
spectators
Schwartz
followsthispattern
world.""Prufrock,"
suggests,
very
that"Weshouldavoidthemisconcepclosely.He warns,
however,
tionthatEliotfirstformulated
the 'half-object'
[thePrufrockian
objectobserved
from
bothaninternal
andanexternal
pointofview]
itin hispoetry."
andthendramatized
"Longbeforehe wrotehis
Schwartznotes,"Eliot had composed'Prufrock,'
dissertation,"
'Portrait
of a Lady,'and severalotherpoemsthatexhibitthe
internal-external
[dissertation's]
pointofviewofthehalf-object."23
Butas Schwartz
himself
that"TheLoveSongofJ.Alfred
implies,
Prufrock"
andExperience
doesnotmeanthat
precededKnowledge
DonaldJ.Childs
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695
thereis no connection
betweenthepoemandthedissertation.
In
factEliot'srecourse
in hisdissertation
tocertain
Prufrockian
metaphorssuggests
thathe himself
wasawareoftheconnection.
Ifin
theusualchronology
ofcauseandeffect
itwouldseemthatBradley
didnotinfluence
thecomposition
of"Prufrock,"
thepoemcertainly
influenced
Eliot'sarticulation
ofhisphilosophical
pointofviewin
and Experience.
Knowledge
The Prufrockian
metaphors
repeated
inthedissertation
signalnotjusta coincidence
ofphrasing
butalso
a coincidence
ofthought
andfeeling.
The Bergsonian
exploration
in1910and1911ofthewaythesubjectdistinguishes
itself
from
the
object(andso createsreality)
bymeansofcontaminated
categories
oftimeandspaceis takenupagainin1915and1916inordertosort
outtheoverwhelming
questiononcemore,thistimefrom
a Bradleyanpointofview.Eliotbegan"Prufrock"
from
theBergsonian
presupposition
thattherelationship
betweenskyandevening,
objectandsubject,
and"youandI" is falseifthatwhichis nonspatial
is definedin termsofthatwhichis spatial.The conclusion
Eliot
reachedwasthatthePrufrockian
selfwasindeeda falseself,a self
from
estranged
itself
byitsdisplacement
ina fractured
socialspace.
Whenhe cameto Bradleyseveralyearslater,Eliotrecognized
a
pointofviewcompatible
withthatin "Prufrock,"
forBradley's
philosophic
exploration
ofthe relationbetweenselfand other
selves articulated
dialecticallywhatPrufrock
had articulated
dramatically-that
is,thatselfdependsuponotherselves,subject
uponobject,and"I" upon"you."According
toBradley,
"manis a
socialbeing;he is realonlybecausehe is social,andcanrealize
himself
onlybecauseit is as socialthathe realizeshimself.
The
mereindividual
is a delusionoftheory;
andtheattempt
torealize
itinpractice
is thestarvation
andmutilation
ofhumannature,
with
totalsterility
ortheproduction
ofmonstrosities."24
Prufrock,
Eliot
discovered
in1915and1916,isa monster
accounted
forbyBradley.
In theend,then,Eliotprovides
bymeansofhisdissertation
on
a thoroughly
Bradley
modern
"Prufrock."
mapforreading
Theresurrection
ofthePrufrockian
ofa patient
metaphor
spreadoutupon
a tablepoints
thewaytothepassagesinKnowledge
andExperience
mostdirectly
relevant
tothisreading.
After
fiveyears,
a poemborn
presumablyof an almostinarticulableexperienceof selfestrangement
becameforEliotan allegory
oftheepistemological
dependenceofreality
upona construction
ofselfand selves-an
thatis, oftheconclusions
allegory,
he was reaching
in hisdisser696
"TheLoveSongofJ.Alfred
Prufrock"
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tation.Insofar,then,as Eliot's workon Bradley in his dissertation
the poem from
seems to have promptedhimto rereador reinterpret
a Bradleyanpoint of view, Bradley does indeed seem to have influenced"The Love Song ofJ.AlfredPrufrock."In effect,Eliot has
taken his own advice and reinterpretedthe lived experience he
capturedin "Prufrock"in the way he suggested,in his dissertation,
truths"should be
thatall such necessarily"partialand fragmentary
reinterpreted:"the finesttactafterall can give us only interpretaalong perhaps with
tion [oflived truths],and everyinterpretation,
has to be taken up and
interpretation,
some utterlycontradictory
reinterpretedby every thinkingmind and by every civilization"
(164). Knowledgeand Experience,I suggest,is in parta reinterpretationor rereadingof "Prufrock."In the course of time,Eliot has
his
"become merelya readerin respectto his own works,forgetting
merely changing."25At
original meaning-or withoutforgetting,
the same time,"Prufrock"suggestsa reading forthe dissertation;
indeed, it writespart of the dissertationinsofaras its metaphors
surfaceat importantmomentsin the epistemologicalinquiry.If we
of the "world spread out
attend carefullyto the reinterpretation
upon a table" in Eliot's dissertation,in otherwords,we will perhaps findEliot's finaldraftof the poem. At the veryleast, we will
findthatthereis somethingofKnowledgeand Experience in "The
Love Song of J.AlfredPrufrock."
University
of Ottawa
NOTES
mytenureas a postdoctoralfellowin The
during
was
begun
article
Workon this
ofCalgaryand was completed
CalgaryInstitutefortheHumanitiesat theUniversity
duringmytenureas a WebsterFellow at Queen's University.
1 KristianSmidt,Poetryand Belief in the Workof T. S. Eliot (Norway,1949;
reprint,London: Routledgeand Kegan Paul, 1961); Hugh Kenner,The Invisible
Poet: T. S. Eliot (New York: McDowell, Oblensky,1959). For a bibliographyof
booksand articlesup to 1971,see AnneC. Bolgan,appendix2, in WhattheThunder
Really Said (Montrealand London: McGill-Queen'sUniv. Press, 1973), 169-84.
ofF. H. Bradley(Lon2 T. S. Eliot,Knowledgeand Experiencein thePhilosophy
don: Faber and Faber, 1964); citationsare givenparenthetically.
Ideal," reviewofT. S. Eliot's Intellectualand
3 JohnCasey,"The Comprehensive
Poetic Development1909-1922,by Piers Gray,TimesLiterarySupplement,September10, 1982,975.
The Criterion3 (1924-25): 2.
4 T. S. Eliot, "A Commentary,"
5 Kenner(note 1), 45.
6
55.
Kenner,
("A
In an earlyessay on Bergson,Eliot refersto Bradleywithsome familiarity
Paper on Bergson,"Eliot Collection,The HoughtonLibrary,HarvardUniversity).
7
DonaldJ. Childs
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697
The essay is undated;the catalogueentryofthe HoughtonLibrarysuggeststhatit
mayhave been written
in 1910or 1911.It is veryunlikely,however,thatEliot wrote
the essay untilafterhis returnfromFrance in the summerof 1911-some months,
thatis, afterthecompletionof"The Love Song ofJ.AlfredPrufrock."
The essay in
questionmay suggestthatEliot was readingBradleybefore1913,but it does not
provethathe was readinghimbeforeor duringthe compositionof "Prufrock."
8 Ezra Pound to HarrietMonroe,January
31, 1915,cited in Caroline Behr,T. S.
Eliot: A Chronologyof his Life and Works(London: MacmillanReferenceBooks,
1983),9.
9 T. S. Eliot to HarrietMonroe,June 7, 1916, Eliot Collection,The Houghton
Library,HarvardUniversity,
citedin GroverSmith,T. S. Eliot's Poetryand Plays:A
Study in Sources and Meanings (Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press,
1956), 15.
0 T. S. Eliot to HenryWareEliot,September6, 1916,citedin The WasteLand: A
Facsimile & Transcript,ed. Valerie Eliot (London: Faber and Faber, 1971),xi.
"T. S. Eliot,"The Love SongofJ.AlfredPrufrock,"
in The CompletePoemsand
Plays of T. S. Eliot (London: Faber and Faber, 1969), 13. All referencesto Eliot's
poems are to thiseditionand are citedparenthetically
in the textby page number.
JamesE. Miller,Jr.,suggeststhatthe "you" in the poem maybe JeanVerdenal,
Eliot's friendfromhis Paris days of 1910 and 1911 (T. S. Eliot's Personal Waste
Land: Exorcismof the Demons [UniversityParkand London: PennsylvaniaState
Univ.Press,1977],52-53). Ifso,Verdenal'sdeathin theDardenellesin Mayof1915
mightbe anotherreasonEliot was thinkingaboutthe poem at thistime.
12 GeorgeWilliamson,
A Reader'sGuide to T. S. Eliot: A Poem-by-Poem
Analysis,
2nd ed. (1953; reprint,
New York:The NoondayPress,1966),59; GroverSmith(note
9), 16; JoyceMeeks Jones,JungianPsychologyin LiteraryAnalysis:A Demonstration Using T. S. Eliot's Poetry(Washington,
D.C.: Univ. Press of America,1979),
10-11; Carol T. Christ,Victorianand ModernPoetics(Chicago and London: Univ.
of Chicago Press, 1984),48; Kenner,10; JosephChiari,T. S. Eliot: Poet and Dramatist(London: Vision Press,1972),37-38.
13 F. 0. Matthiessen,
The Achievementof T. S. Eliot: An Essay on theNatureof
Poetry,3rded., witha chapteron Eliot's laterworkby C. L. Barber(1935; reprint,
New Yorkand London: OxfordUniv. Press,1958),30.
14T. S. Eliot, "The Functionof Criticism,"in Selected Essays, 3rd ed., revised
and enlarged(1932; reprint,London: Faber and Faber, 1951),33.
15 T. S. Eliot to Eudo Mason,April19, 1945, HumanitiesResearchCenter,UniversityofTexas,cited in PeterAckroyd,
T. S. Eliot (1984; reprint,
London: Abacus,
1985),41.
16 PiersGray,T. S. Eliot's Intellectualand PoeticDevelopment
1909-1922(Brighton,Sussex: The HarvesterPress,1982),56.
17 Henri Bergson,Matterand Memory,trans.by Nancy MargaretPaul and W.
ScottPalmer(London: GeorgeAllen & Unwin,1911), 197.
18 Gray,
56.
19 JewelSpearsBrooker,
"SubstitutesforChristianity
in thePoetryofT.
S. Eliot,"
The SouthernReview21 (1985): 908.
20 Henri Bergson,Timeand Free Will:An Essay on
theImmediateData of Consciousness,trans.by F. L. Pogson,4thed. (1889; reprint,
London: GeorgeAllen &
Unwin,1921),91, 126, 163.
21 T. S. Eliot, "A Paper on Bergson,"7, 17. "A Paper on Bergson"is copyrighted
to Mrs.T. S. Eliot and cannotbe reproducedorconsultedwithoutherpermission.I
quote fromthismanuscriptby permissionof Mrs. Eliot and by permissionof the
HoughtonLibrary.
22 FrancisHerbertBradley,
Appearanceand Reality:A MetaphysicalEssay, 2nd
ed., 9thimpressioncorrected(1893; reprint,
Oxford:OxfordUniv.Press,1930),306;
698
"TheLove SongofJ.AlfredPrufrock".
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cited in The Waste Land, 80. Hugh Kennerremarksthatthe passage is "a vivid
paragraphfromBradley'sAppearanceand Realitythatmighthave been composed
by a disciplinedPrufrock"
(Kenner,44).
23 SanfordSchwartz,
The MatrixofModernism(Princeton:PrincetonUniv.Press,
1985), 184, 187.
4 FrancisHerbertBradley,Ethical Studies,2nd ed. revised(1876; reprint,
Glasgow: OxfordUniv. Press,1927), 174.
25T. S. Eliot, The Use of Poetryand the Use of Criticism(London: Faber and
Faber, 1933), 130.
DonaldJ.Childs
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699