"I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas." Still my favorite line. It's the lowest point of Prufrock's sad realization of his life and anxieties.
I discovered this poem after watching this movie The Lobster and that line to me symbolizes solitude, although a self-imposed one. (In the movie, The Lobster, the protagonist enrolls himself into a dating hotel, where they are matched based on a pre-profile questionnaire and other things, not on love. If they fail to find love in the 2 weeks or so they are allowed there, they turn into an animal. He chooses Lobster, so he can travel alone on the sea floor. And because they are “blue blooded”)
@@asbestosbunny He doesn't enroll himself, he's forced to attend the program after his wife leaves him for someone else. The movie implies being single is illegal in this society, as evident when they go shopping in the city and have to pretend to be couples or they will get arrested.
I like the pacing, direct, to the point, not too self indulgent. Hopkins beautifully captures the resigned sadness of the poem's speaker. One of the best readings of a poem on youtube, in my opinion.
I love to wander through this poem over and over again without any great depth of understanding but enjoying the images which are sometimes ruthless and sometimes comforting. As I grow older some parts seem prophetic and as I remember, some parts are unbearably sad. I love great poetry like a dragon loves its hoard and like the dragon there is never enough. When I was a young stupid boy I did not like this poet but that boy was killed.
To prepare a face to meet the faces you meet... We do that every day. This poem has been my favorite since college and I look forward to teaching it to my AP students every year.
Yeah that line has stuck with me since i found this poem at 17. Such a haunting inescapable conclusion. He's got those opening and closing lines down pat. lol
Anthony Hopkins has by far the finest voice. I have heard reading. Prufrock. The more. I hear it the more. I'm convinced it's the reading that's the one for me. S
I believe he speaks in a rapid verse because that would mirror the fast pace that life takes toward the inevitable conclude."My life had crawled past me till I looked up and it was over!".Our longevity is so often interrupted by death.
I have to listen to this poem/ reading at least twice a day. I think Eliot knew something profound and deep that he just gives us hints about in Prufrock. Blows my mind what words can do!! Blows my mind that he was only 22 when he wrote this!!!
My take is that Eliot, who was also a playwright, has created a dramatic character who is brimming over with bitter resentments and disappointments, and who is in a hurry to tell us about them. The quick pace also suggests that time is rushing by Prufrock, though at certain points Hopkins slows down to catch the underlying sadness. Perhaps we've become so used to elegaic readings of almost all poetry that we fail to see the poem's dramatic core, which Hopkins' fine reading reveals.
It's actually a comedy of manners in an age when manners were seen to the door and handed its hat. Getting ever closer to the middle of the 20th century and the end of the world as we know it. Do you feel fine?
Thank you for posting this impressive reading. To my ear, Hopkins strikes the right note of anxious melancholy. He becomes Pufrock, & leads me to that overwhelming question time & time again.
The inconsequential nature of human pursuits and life. Couldn't have been explained better. Our words can stand nowhere close to explaining what Sir Eliot put forth so beautifully in words.
I first heard this poem from my 7th grade English teacher. The first time he did attendance for the class when he got to my name he started reciting the poem, I was completely confused until he explained the poem to me and since then I have loved it. It really makes me wonder if J Alfred Prufrock was a real person and if there could somehow be a relation if he was.
Perhaps one could argue that Hopkins' rather fast speed in reading is reflective of the very theme of time itself within the poem. Time passes by quickly and without mercy. You can't take a time out or ask for temporary respite from time like Prufrock tries. Before you know it, much like Prufrock, you find that everything has ended before you even knew it. So in a way, Anthony Hopkins' delivery may have been quite purposeful in drawing greater emphasis to the irony of Prufrock's claims that "there will be time" when really, in his heart he knows that that's just an excuse. Any way, that's how I look at it personally.
He seems to say, "I get no respect," "Where is the sacred," "Where is a euphoric moment?" "I fear my mortality." "I make no connections with people." "I am Mediocre, I must live with it."
This is by far my favorite poem, resonating with me and filling me with dread and sorrow all at once. I think Hopkins did a good job reading this; I can hear the weariness in his voice.
I thought it was a bit too fast until I heard it a second time...eyes shut laying on the sofa. I then realised the tone and mood was perfect...slowing down when necessary. It is after all a reflective poem so one's speed of thought is generally rather fast...therefore the pace was pretty accurate...he is after all Prufrock and Prufrock I feel would have been thinking at a fairly rapid pace, reflecting on what may or should have been....
I had no idea this existed! Anthony Hopkins is my favorite actor and perhaps even my favorite person, and I can't sleep at night and just randomly think, hey maybe he has ever read a book or something. This is awesome!
TS Eliot's own belief was that once he composed his poem, it was its own living organism. It would be free to be interpreted by its readers. A poem can mean anything it wants. Although Hopkins does read it quickly, in his own way, he probably interprets it differently than others. That's how Eliot intended it to be. I believe that it's only respectful to go on that belief. :) Everyone has their own way of reading it.
Thank you! I had read this to myself before, but other than the ending where the mermaids come into it and the brief line about spoons I was not able to sail through the entire sea of words and feel each one until hearing it now. Thank you for sharing this.
This poem really embodies the dread and anxiety of holidays with my judgemental family. Had to read it for class and I’ve read it like 10 times now and it just hits me every time. Love literature that evokes emotion.
Among my favorite TS Eliot poems, along with Ash-Thursday and the Hollow Men. Love how Anthony reads it. I read it like that too, beacuse I like to read it aloud a lot!!! Poetry is such a necessary pang in our hearts. :)
@@JiMMY-my1ds Well, it wouldn't be difficult (time permitting) to list 500. To claim something as "the greatest piece of literature ever written" suggests that you've at least read all of Homer, Dante, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, Euripides, Tolstoy, Chaucer, Aeschylus, etc, and for some reason I'm suspecting you haven't. Even sticking to poetry alone it would be easy. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is neither a song nor about love, and seems to be written from the vantage point of a procrastinator who gets hung up on domestic banalities like "Do I dare eat a peach?" and wondering how to wear his trousers. The man clearly wears his collar tight and is vacuous. The reading of the poem here is very fine, and the poem itself is original, though I can't help disliking the speaker. He himself admits he's less than a full crab.
@@jimnewcombe7584 ahh I see what this is… you fancy yourself a bit of a literary buff and need to shit on others enjoyment of Prufrock to affirm your ‘superior’ knowledge and stroke your ego. What a joke. No doubt you sit round with ‘friends’ probably drinking wine and cheese reciting your favourite poems. Patting each other on the back. Stop with the wank. You have no way of providing any evidence that Prufrock is any worse than anything you’ve listed. Pretentious git. I’m still waiting on you 100 ‘better’ pieces.. or is it 500 now?🙄
Andrew--Eliot was an American poet:) He was born in St. Louis and moved to England as a young man. He goes down as both a British and an American poet. This is a great reading! I think it is better than Eliot reading it.
Yes, because we are of a different generation, the pain and uncertainty is the same and we can all relate. Hopkins is gangster! And shows is just how gangster, Eliot was and is for eternity ; )
I quite agree. One does tend to rush, thinking it fitting the rhyme, I made a recording of Prufrock a while ago and rushed through parts of it. Different parts, as it turns out. But Tony's timbre suits the poem quite well. I count this among my bery favourite poems, and it does my heart some good to hear it thus recited. Here's my most recent rendition: soundcloud.com/the-uzig-zag-wanderer/the-lovesong-of-j-alfred
"Let us go then" ... but where and why and how long shall we go there and what happens when we finish? Such a moving poem read by such a wonderful man.
I was a total flake and a stupid boy at school but my parents sent me to the best schools and sometimes in a mundane world I want to hear again the voice of my crazy old teacher so I activate the electric mist and listen to poems like this and I am comforted that out there excellence exists. I cannot remember how I once said in Latin - "She was always the fastest of ships" or in Ancient Greek "They sailed on a wine dark sea."
I have a similar story, and also took latin. This poem brings me back to when I was 15 in english class. We worked on the poem for a week. I still remember the first few lines word for word because of how many times we read it aloud in class.
The recitation of poetry is an art form, and there are different ways different artists go about it. It doesn't have to be commonplace and usual to be a viable way of performing said art form.
Eliot, like Pound and most if not all of the Modernists, was very concerned with the loss of tradition and increase of commercialism. He felt that a disconnection from tradition and feeling causes a kind of animalistic autonomy and cheapening of the human condition. This poem is probably a reflection of loneliness, death, and old age. Perhaps an idea of life without the experience of real love or a disconnection from society. The Waste Land would probably explain it better, if actually fully understood...
But it's also about a particular kind of Englishman, bred in a particular way, cultivated, yet ravaged and hollowed by privilege and no resistance or conflict, world-weary yet completely naive and parochial.
He has such a great voice for this kind of thing. "Until Human Voices Wake Us" is a very good movie. Wish Anthony Hopkins had been in it, but but the main character is good, too. Bittersweet.
I understand Prufrock more and more the older I get...which terrifies me.
+SwitcherooU Well said.
Isn't that the point, my friend?
yes
I first heard it at 16...now many years ago. I appreciate it more each year. Dang that footman!
That's a good sign. Don't worry about it.
22 years old when he wrote it. 22. Think of that.
"I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas." Still my favorite line. It's the lowest point of Prufrock's sad realization of his life and anxieties.
I love that that line also. But for me
"I do not think that they will sing to me."
always leaves me in tears
It hits me hard
I discovered this poem after watching this movie The Lobster and that line to me symbolizes solitude, although a self-imposed one. (In the movie, The Lobster, the protagonist enrolls himself into a dating hotel, where they are matched based on a pre-profile questionnaire and other things, not on love. If they fail to find love in the 2 weeks or so they are allowed there, they turn into an animal. He chooses Lobster, so he can travel alone on the sea floor. And because they are “blue blooded”)
@@asbestosbunny He doesn't enroll himself, he's forced to attend the program after his wife leaves him for someone else. The movie implies being single is illegal in this society, as evident when they go shopping in the city and have to pretend to be couples or they will get arrested.
@@singram great line 💯
I like the pacing, direct, to the point, not too self indulgent. Hopkins beautifully captures the resigned sadness of the poem's speaker. One of the best readings of a poem on youtube, in my opinion.
I love to wander through this poem over and over again without any great depth of understanding but enjoying the images which are sometimes ruthless and sometimes comforting. As I grow older some parts seem prophetic and as I remember, some parts are unbearably sad. I love great poetry like a dragon loves its hoard and like the dragon there is never enough. When I was a young stupid boy I did not like this poet but that boy was killed.
Yes. He gets it. He understands this poem.
To prepare a face to meet the faces you meet...
We do that every day. This poem has been my favorite since college and I look forward to teaching it to my AP students every year.
Absolutely love that line. No interpretation required.
No one will better understand this life than the AP students. Eventually they will find out that love is only meant for beauty queens.
It's a terrible feeling when every word of this poem strikes you with clarity and you know them to be true and happening.
That's the beauty of this entire movement in poetry. For once, literature that reflects the truth, rather than fantasy
Excellent! The exact type of voice that is in my head when I read this poem.
The way Hopkins orates that last line gives me goosebumps
Yeah that line has stuck with me since i found this poem at 17. Such a haunting inescapable conclusion. He's got those opening and closing lines down pat. lol
Anthony Hopkins has by far the finest voice. I have heard reading. Prufrock. The more. I hear it the more. I'm convinced it's the reading that's the one for me. S
I believe he speaks in a rapid verse because that would mirror the fast pace that life takes toward the inevitable conclude."My life had crawled past me till I looked up and it was over!".Our longevity is so often interrupted by death.
whew! that was one heart stopping '...I do not think that they will sing to me.' "....till human voices wake us and we drown."
This bloke has lived and noted in poetry the truth that people live...and it is a thing of beauty.
I have to listen to this poem/ reading at least twice a day. I think Eliot knew something profound and deep that he just gives us hints about in Prufrock. Blows my mind what words can do!! Blows my mind that he was only 22 when he wrote this!!!
22? Really!? Wow.
My take is that Eliot, who was also a playwright, has created a dramatic character who is brimming over with bitter resentments and disappointments, and who is in a hurry to tell us about them. The quick pace also suggests that time is rushing by Prufrock, though at certain points Hopkins slows down to catch the underlying sadness. Perhaps we've become so used to elegaic readings of almost all poetry that we fail to see the poem's dramatic core, which Hopkins' fine reading reveals.
It's actually a comedy of manners in an age when manners were seen to the door and handed its hat. Getting ever closer to the middle of the 20th century and the end of the world as we know it. Do you feel fine?
Thank you for posting this impressive reading. To my ear, Hopkins strikes the right note of anxious melancholy. He becomes Pufrock, & leads me to that overwhelming question time & time again.
This is so perfect...he really captures the anxiety of this poem. LOVEIT
Studied this at school when I was 15... 40 years later am hearing it again. Brings back a lot of memories....
hearing him read my favorite poem it sent shivered to my spine...
I agree. This poem resonates to my core. Sometimes I still find myself repeating a few of the lines of it when I'm walking alone on cold days.
+Torretta13
Where did that hostility come from? We were just saying how we like the poem. Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?
Eva T Silva weak ass poem #fuckscho9l
A woman could never truly understand this poem
Misogynist trolls (probably the same one with several accounts), you aren't welcome.
The inconsequential nature of human pursuits and life. Couldn't have been explained better. Our words can stand nowhere close to explaining what Sir Eliot put forth so beautifully in words.
I first heard this poem from my 7th grade English teacher. The first time he did attendance for the class when he got to my name he started reciting the poem, I was completely confused until he explained the poem to me and since then I have loved it. It really makes me wonder if J Alfred Prufrock was a real person and if there could somehow be a relation if he was.
A truly great poem, one that everyone should reflect on before it's too late.
Love the imagery - so many favourite lines.
Perhaps one could argue that Hopkins' rather fast speed in reading is reflective of the very theme of time itself within the poem. Time passes by quickly and without mercy. You can't take a time out or ask for temporary respite from time like Prufrock tries. Before you know it, much like Prufrock, you find that everything has ended before you even knew it. So in a way, Anthony Hopkins' delivery may have been quite purposeful in drawing greater emphasis to the irony of Prufrock's claims that "there will be time" when really, in his heart he knows that that's just an excuse. Any way, that's how I look at it personally.
maybe it was purposeful, but I did not like it at all. I felt he murdered this poem. It did get bet further on, when he slowed down.
agreed.
I can't agree with u more
I can't disagree with all of you more!
Damn it felt like u pinned it
He seems to say, "I get no respect," "Where is the sacred," "Where is a euphoric moment?" "I fear my mortality." "I make no connections with people." "I am Mediocre, I must live with it."
I love this comment. Thank you :)
yes, well put
And he realizes how truly inept he is...well done, Robert!
This reading is as good as it gets... beautiful .. I love this voice
I love Mr. Hopkins! His voice is so relaxing!
This is by far my favorite poem, resonating with me and filling me with dread and sorrow all at once.
I think Hopkins did a good job reading this; I can hear the weariness in his voice.
"Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse"
Words which I live by.
"At times, indeed, almost ridiculous-
Almost, at times, the Fool."
Yes, words for the human experience.
Specifically Polonius, but yes, a common manner of behaviour.
Thank you for the Eliot's poem, spoken by Anthony. Beautifully spoken and captures the eulogy of life and death.
absolutely my favourite poem in English language, and probably one of my favourite in general. Eliot was a genius
Edoardo Trabucchi took him 10 years to complete. His writing is so rich.
Beautiful. One of my favorite poems and the perfect voice to recite it.
Never heard it read so quickly before but his voice is so expressive
I thought it was a bit too fast until I heard it a second time...eyes shut laying on the sofa. I then realised the tone and mood was perfect...slowing down when necessary. It is after all a reflective poem so one's speed of thought is generally rather fast...therefore the pace was pretty accurate...he is after all Prufrock and Prufrock I feel would have been thinking at a fairly rapid pace, reflecting on what may or should have been....
You can feel his regret in the final lines. Wonderful reading.
"I've seen the moment of my greatness flicker" is my favourite part
The mental image of George Costanza comes to mind each time I have read it since my English Major days
You know, that actually works.
@@Biosynchro somebody should make a video of Costanza's shots synced to the poem
This poem is a shock to the system, and Hopkins’ perception is quite breathtaking !
I had no idea this existed! Anthony Hopkins is my favorite actor and perhaps even my favorite person, and I can't sleep at night and just randomly think, hey maybe he has ever read a book or something. This is awesome!
TS Eliot's own belief was that once he composed his poem, it was its own living organism. It would be free to be interpreted by its readers. A poem can mean anything it wants. Although Hopkins does read it quickly, in his own way, he probably interprets it differently than others. That's how Eliot intended it to be. I believe that it's only respectful to go on that belief. :) Everyone has their own way of reading it.
I find myself crying at the end, even tho I almost know it by heart.
Thank you! I had read this to myself before, but other than the ending where the mermaids come into it and the brief line about spoons I was not able to sail through the entire sea of words and feel each one until hearing it now. Thank you for sharing this.
This poem really embodies the dread and anxiety of holidays with my judgemental family. Had to read it for class and I’ve read it like 10 times now and it just hits me every time. Love literature that evokes emotion.
This poem.... WOW!
wonderfully read. Thank you Debbie.
This was my favorite poem in college. When my son was in college, this his favorite poem. What a coincidence! He wrote this poem at 19.
Read beautifully in the main, but in parts to fast and yet still beautiful. Always beautiful.
His voice is awesome! Just love it...it's so smoothing...and sexy! he could read the phonebook and make it sound intersting!
He.s so right.slow it down it becomes hammy.Mr. Hopkins is so right on it.oz
I love these Hopkins readings.
The pace is just right (for me!)
I want him to read me bedtime stories
Hmmm thats Hannibal Lecter ...
Do you talk of Michelangelo, Clarisse?
Ever heard of the Ninja Turtles Clarrice?
I ate his liver with some pizza, Clarice.
Have the ragged claws stopped scuttling, Clarisse?
😂😂😂😂😂
Among my favorite TS Eliot poems, along with Ash-Thursday and the Hollow Men.
Love how Anthony reads it. I read it like that too, beacuse I like to read it aloud a lot!!!
Poetry is such a necessary pang in our hearts. :)
i had to play @ .75x, and it made all the difference
Id listen to a podcast of this Guy.
This is amazing thankyou, I also think it's perfect!
My first and favourite poem I've listened to
Amazing poetry
I think it's perfect; it captures the angst, desperation, and anxiety of Prufrock although I love T.S. Eliot's old, creeky voice.
the pace is perfect, i listened to different version just before this one, and it was painfully slow.
Pushing 60 and I'm no longer bored by this poem. I love hate and am I'm living it.
Omg... His voice.
This may be the greatest piece of literature ever written. It’s seems to follow me - haunt me.
I could think of a 100 better.
@@jimnewcombe7584 Okay. Go ahead. List 100 better. I’ll wait 🙄
@@JiMMY-my1ds Well, it wouldn't be difficult (time permitting) to list 500. To claim something as "the greatest piece of literature ever written" suggests that you've at least read all of Homer, Dante, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, Euripides, Tolstoy, Chaucer, Aeschylus, etc, and for some reason I'm suspecting you haven't. Even sticking to poetry alone it would be easy.
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is neither a song nor about love, and seems to be written from the vantage point of a procrastinator who gets hung up on domestic banalities like "Do I dare eat a peach?" and wondering how to wear his trousers. The man clearly wears his collar tight and is vacuous. The reading of the poem here is very fine, and the poem itself is original, though I can't help disliking the speaker. He himself admits he's less than a full crab.
@@jimnewcombe7584 ahh I see what this is… you fancy yourself a bit of a literary buff and need to shit on others enjoyment of Prufrock to affirm your ‘superior’ knowledge and stroke your ego. What a joke. No doubt you sit round with ‘friends’ probably drinking wine and cheese reciting your favourite poems. Patting each other on the back.
Stop with the wank. You have no way of providing any evidence that Prufrock is any worse than anything you’ve listed. Pretentious git. I’m still waiting on you 100 ‘better’ pieces.. or is it 500 now?🙄
absolutely perfect
Thank you for posting this, gloritarendon.
Love!
It's a masterpiece
TS Eliot... *swoon* One of the Eternally Best Poems. I declare.
Andrew--Eliot was an American poet:) He was born in St. Louis and moved to England as a young man. He goes down as both a British and an American poet.
This is a great reading! I think it is better than Eliot reading it.
A masterpiece
thanks for posting - i really enjoyed listening
Tom (F4collector)
Fantastic! Prefect! I can't believe. :OOO
Yes, because we are of a different generation, the pain and uncertainty is the same and we can all relate. Hopkins is gangster! And shows is just how gangster, Eliot was and is for eternity ; )
Indeed generous to delineate greatness upon the ear of fools
Pace is fine, he knows what he's doing. Just one of the variations I think :) I liked it
Brilliant!
I often revisit our visits, these previous doubts of mine,. Where I had little experience and so little time.
Great reading, maybe a bit fast, taking us to the ultimate question a little bit sooner than we might like. Mr. Hopkins can do no wrong.
I quite agree. One does tend to rush, thinking it fitting the rhyme, I made a recording of Prufrock a while ago and rushed through parts of it. Different parts, as it turns out. But Tony's timbre suits the poem quite well. I count this among my bery favourite poems, and it does my heart some good to hear it thus recited.
Here's my most recent rendition:
soundcloud.com/the-uzig-zag-wanderer/the-lovesong-of-j-alfred
"Let us go then" ... but where and why and how long shall we go there and what happens when we finish? Such a moving poem read by such a wonderful man.
Superb!
Excellently, read....
amazing!
Very good! Well done! Unsurprisingly :)
I took a test and there was a quote of this, I was curious and searched it up
I was a total flake and a stupid boy at school but my parents sent me to the best schools and sometimes in a mundane world I want to hear again the voice of my crazy old teacher so I activate the electric mist and listen to poems like this and I am comforted that out there excellence exists. I cannot remember how I once said in Latin - "She was always the fastest of ships" or in Ancient Greek "They sailed on a wine dark sea."
I have a similar story, and also took latin. This poem brings me back to when I was 15 in english class. We worked on the poem for a week. I still remember the first few lines word for word because of how many times we read it aloud in class.
I love his fucking voice .
💕😍 Wow !
I loved it at 19 and I love it at 72.
The recitation of poetry is an art form, and there are different ways different artists go about it. It doesn't have to be commonplace and usual to be a viable way of performing said art form.
I should have been a pair of ragged claws... My favorite line
Thankz for putting this up. Im in college in this is one of my papers. Helped alot ( :
G' Job, Tony!
It is hard to read poetry well. Even excellent actors are sometimes prone to ponderous readings. I really like this one.
Perfect
Eliot, like Pound and most if not all of the Modernists, was very concerned with the loss of tradition and increase of commercialism. He felt that a disconnection from tradition and feeling causes a kind of animalistic autonomy and cheapening of the human condition. This poem is probably a reflection of loneliness, death, and old age. Perhaps an idea of life without the experience of real love or a disconnection from society. The Waste Land would probably explain it better, if actually fully understood...
But it's also about a particular kind of Englishman, bred in a particular way, cultivated, yet ravaged and hollowed by privilege and no resistance or conflict, world-weary yet completely naive and parochial.
He has such a great voice for this kind of thing. "Until Human Voices Wake Us" is a very good movie. Wish Anthony Hopkins had been in it, but but the main character is good, too. Bittersweet.
This is the perfect way to read this.
Yes.
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍💖💖💖💖💖💖💖👏 fantastic read!