Prufrock's Eternal Footman
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I finished the development of this poem on July 17, 2014. T.S. Eliot has always been one of my favorite poets dating back to my time as a student in the University. Along with the contributions of Ezra Pound, I have always admired the likewise shared contributions that Eliot made to modern English poetry as a prophet of modernity. With this in mind, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," one of Eliot's great masterpieces in the twentieth-century, was my source and inspiration for my poetic vision of "Prufrock's Eternal Footman." Eliot's world in "Prufrock" is a highly symbolic world which addresses many compelling themes. The Eternal Footman, as referenced, is an integral part of this symbolic world. (Gary Bateman - August 12, 2014)
I think this Footman likes to snicker,
and the human situation is the kicker,
when one becomes sicker and sicker,
and it’s one’s time to die and cry for one’s soul.
Prufrock’s point is well-taken and understood
for the Footman is an end of life reality who is
the “King of Finality” and doesn’t care while seeking
mankind’s banal end, since Man is really small potatoes
in the Universe’s great and grand pecking order.
I think that I shall not want to meet this Bamboozler,
at least this would be my choice, if I really had one.
I doubt that I, like others, could ever be like Lazarus.
The Footman presents us all with a one-way ticket to
what awaits mankind beyond the pale of death!
And so we all await the end of our finite time as
measured in grains of sand and the clock on the wall;
waiting for the day and time of our final departure,
and hoping not to hear the scornful snicker, snicker
of the Prufrock’s Eternal Footman!
Gary Bateman, Copyright © All Rights Reserved
(July 17, 2014)
Copyright © Gary Bateman | Year Posted 2014
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