Title
In the drafts, the poem had the subtitle "Prufrock among the Women." Eliot said "The Love Song of" portion of the title came from "The Love Song of Har Dyal," a poem by Rudyard Kipling, published in the 1888 collection Plain Tales from the Hills. The form of Prufrock's name is like the name that Eliot was using at the time: T. Stearns Eliot.
On the origin of the name "Prufrock", there was a Prufrock-Litton Company, a furniture store, in St. Louis at the time Eliot lived there.
In a 1950 letter, Eliot said, "I did not have, at the time of writing the poem, and have not yet recovered, any recollection of having acquired this name in any way, but I think that it must be assumed that I did, and that the memory has been obliterated."
Read more about this topic: The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock
Famous quotes containing the word title:
“Greatness is a light-hearted title for theatrical entertainments. Or a definition endowed on men too long dead to know that it’s been awarded.”
—Arthur Ross. Leslie (Tony Curtis)
“One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose.”
—Bible: Hebrew Ecclesiastes, 1:4-5.
Ernest Hemingway took the title The Sun Also Rises (1926)
“Now that the steam engine rules the world, a title is an absurdity, still I am all dressed up in this title. It will crush me if I do not support it. The title attracts attention to myself.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)