The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock in popular culture

T. S. Eliot's 1915 poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is often referenced in popular culture.

Film and television

The poem is quoted several times, by various characters, in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979).[1][2]

The film I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987) directed by Patricia Rozema takes its title from a line in the poem; as does the film Eat the Peach (1986), directed by Peter Ormrod.

In the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris (2011), Gil (Owen Wilson) mentions the poem to T. S. Eliot as they get into a taxi.[3][4]

The film It Follows (2014) features a diegetic reading of the poem.

In the film Mike's Murder (1984) Philip Green (played by Paul Winfield) paraphrases from the poem in describing the title character, Mike Chuhutsky (played by Mark Keyloun): "He was always preparing a face to meet the faces that he met."

Music

James McMurtry sings "I measure out my life in coffee grounds" in his song "Charlemagne's Home Town" on the 2005 album Childish Things, a variation of the verse "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons".[5]

Frank Turner references Prufrock in the song title "I knew Prufrock before he got famous" on his 2008 album Love Ire & Song.[6]

"Afternoons & Coffeespoons" (1993), a song by the Canadian pop rock group Crash Test Dummies, is built on references to the poem, and namedrops Eliot himself.[7]

Sting sings in the song "Bring on the Night" on The Police 1979 album Reggatta de Blanc, "The afternoon has gently passed me by, the evening spreads itself against the sky" which evokes: "Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky".

Bo Burnham opens his song "Repeat Stuff" by saying "Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table... T. S. Eliot"

The song by the band Mumford & Sons, There Will Be Time, borrows its title and part of its chorus from the poem: And indeed there will be time.

Literature

Novels that reference the poem include The Long Goodbye (1953) by Raymond Chandler, the young-adult novel The Chocolate War (1974) by Robert Cormier, The Eternal Footman (1999, the title of which also comes from the poem) by James K. Morrow, and When Beauty Tamed the Beast (2011) by Eloisa James. The August 1972 issue of National Lampoon featured an article by Sean Kelly entitled "The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover" which began "We'd better go quietly, you and I."[8] Humorist Kinky Friedman wrote a novel entitled The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover. The young-adult novelists John Green and Sarah Dessen make references to the poem in their respective novels The Fault in Our Stars and Dreamland. In The Austere Academy in A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Baudelaire orphans attend Prufrock Preparatory School. Stephen King quotes this poem in his novel Under the Dome.

Asteroid

Asteroid 32892 Prufrock, discovered by Anlaug Kaas at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma in 1994, was named for the eponymous narrator of T. S. Eliot's poem.[9] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 9 January 2020 (M.P.C. 120069).[10]

References
  1. "Apocalypse Now Redux (1979/2001)", Film Freak Central, 16 August 2014, originally published 17 August 2001
  2. Greg M. Colón Semenza, Bob Hasenfratz (2015). The History of British Literature on Film, 1895–2015. Bloomsbury. p. 314. ISBN 9781623561871.
  3. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" – T. S. Eliot, old taxi park, 4 June
  4. "Midnight in Paris: a beginner's guide to modernism" by Jonathan Jones, The Guardian, 12 October 2011
  5. Horowitz, Hal. "Childish Things – Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
  6. "Love Ire & Song – Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved 2013-03-09.
  7. Melis, Matt (2008-05-24). "Guilty Pleasure: Crash Test Dummies – God Shuffled His Feet". Consequence of Sound.
  8. "Issue #29 The Miracle of Democracy". Marksverylarge.com. 1997-11-03. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
  9. "(32892) Prufrock". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  10. "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
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