Annotations: the love song of A Prufrock

Annotations from B.C. Southam's A Student's Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot and The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Title: Orginal title: "Prufrock Among the Women." "J. Alfred Prufrock" parallels Eliot's signature - "T. Stearns Eliot" - at the time of writing (1909-1911). Epigraph: Lines are from Dante's Inferno, spoken by the character of Count Guido da Montefeltro. Dante meets the punished Guido (a false counselor) in the Eighth chasm of …

…high sentence (117): Older meanings: "opinions," "sententiousness." Fool (119): Standard character in Elizabethan drama, such as a court jester who entertains the nobility and speaks wise nonsense (the Fool in "King Lear" is perhaps the best example). I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. / Shall I part my hair behind? (121-122): At the time, both styles were considered bohemian; the middle-aged Prufrock pathetically wonders if he can reverse his aging by embracing such youthful fashions.