Which American poet is known for “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”? T. S. Eliot wrote the poem. The American-born poet’s dramatic interior monologue follows Prufrock, an anxious, self-conscious man paralyzed by indecision and social insecurity.
Eliot wrote much of the poem when he was about 22, despite presenting a speaker who worries about aging, thinning hair, and missed opportunities. It was first published in the June 1915 issue of Poetry magazine after Ezra Pound recommended Eliot’s work to editor Harriet Monroe. The poem’s unusual imagery and fragmented voice helped signal the rise of literary Modernism.
Prufrock is filled with allusions to Dante, Shakespeare, the Bible, and earlier poets. Its famous opening compares an evening sky to a patient under anesthesia, an image that initially shocked readers. A common mix-up is identifying Ezra Pound as the author: Pound supported the poem’s publication and influenced Eliot, but Eliot wrote it. Eliot later became a British citizen and major British literary figure, though he was born in St. Louis, Missouri.