What is the significance of the epigraph from Dante to “The Love-Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”? Compare the two versions: the one in this version, from Eliot’s notebook, and the published version shown in the footnotes, which is a different quotation from Dante. Why do you think Eliot changed the epigraph?
The poem itself begins with “Let us go then, you and I.” If I refers to J. Alfred Prufrock, who is you? For that matter, who is J. Alfred Prufrock? What is the significance of that name? What is his personality like? Of special importance: how old is he? (Be careful. Read it again carefully before you answer.)
Robert Hayden’s “Night, Death, Mississippi” employs some of the techniques of a dramatic monologue. It presents a dramatic situation, and the speakers’ psychology is one of the poem’s main subjects. How does Hayden employ these elements effectively?
On the other hand, this poem has more than one speaker in it. What advantages does the presence of the other voices in the poem provide? Why does Hayden not distinguish clearly between the speakers by using quotation marks or other indications of a change of speaker? What is the function of the italicized lines?
Why is the poem called “The Idea of Order at Key West” instead of “Order at Key West”? What is an “artificer,” and is it a good thing or a bad thing for Stevens? How can you tell this is a dramatic monolgue, rather than being written in Stevens’s own voice?
“The Idea of Order at Key West” would say far less if it simply ended when the singer’s song did. But it doesn’t. In fact, the portion of the poem that addresses what happens after the song ends may be the most important part. How does the singer’s song affect the speaker and his fellow listeners? Why is that effect important?