“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot (post 2): Interpretation suggested by Eliot’s statement that “You and I” are alternate personalities.

As previously discussed, Eliot, himself, was not of one mind about the meaning of this poem, so far be it from me to claim to understand it. And since I’ve read very little about how others have interpreted this poem, I don’t know whether the following will be old or new.

The poem’s first lines:

“Let us go then, you and I, 

When the evening is spread out against the sky 

Like a patient etherized upon a table; 

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets…” (1). 

Although the punctuation appears to indicate that “the evening” is “Like a patient…,” I interpret the lines to mean that “you and I” are “Like a patient…,” because people can get etherized (not evenings), and “you and I” are alternate personalities of a single person (see prior post), the single, etherized patient.

What is the significance of “etherized”? Ether is an old, obsolete anesthetic, but it also has a history as a recreational drug (2) to which Eliot’s first wife was addicted (3). I don’t know whether Eliot ever experimented with ether, and he started writing this poem in 1910, five years before he got married. But he may have heard of its recreational use, so his use of it in this poem may indicate that “you and I” are in a drugged, trance, or altered state of consciousness. The poem is about their “trip” on ether.

The poem’s refrain:

“In the room the women come and go 

Talking of Michelangelo.”

suggests that “you and I” are not really going anywhere, but remain in a room where women come and go.

Line 31:

“Time for you and time for me,”

suggests that alternate personalities “you and I” will each have his own time in control.

The last stanza begins with “We,” giving a final emphasis to the idea that “you and I” go together.

1. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/detail/44212

2. Wikipedia. “Ether addiction.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ether_addiction

3. Louis Menand. “The Women Come and Go: The love song of T. S. Eliot.” The New Yorker, September 30, 2002. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/09/30/the-women-come-and-go