TS Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock can be accurately described as an amalgam of synergistic emotions, including insecurity , desire, fear, regret and indecision – which, through the alchemy of poetry, work in tandem to create and communicate an overwhelming sense of anxiety. These emotions act as floodgates on the lens through which the poem's narrator sees himself and the city streets he travels. Overwhelmed by an “overwhelming question” (10) the narrator – perhaps more terrified by the sheer gravity of the “overwhelming question” (10) than the numerous other fears and self-doubts the narrator presents to the reader – never unequivocally specifies, the the poem's character takes a journey through the city and the mind to arrive at what might be described as a relatively disproportionate fateful tea where the character will summon (or find himself unable to summon) the "strength to force the moment to its crisis " (80) . Through imagery, Eliot paints a rather dark picture of a middle-aged man's frustrations with his position in the world. Eliot also makes extensive use of allusions both to contextualize the poem's character and to describe a narrator who, despite possessing considerable intellect, sees himself as ineffectual and "almost, at times, the Fool" (119). Decidedly pessimistic in tone, "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufock" ironically provides its reader not with a love song as the title might suggest but, rather, an intense and unfavorable internal analysis in which the poem's persona demonstrates all nothing but self-love. with its 131 verses, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock" manages to allude to a wide range of literary works, including Dante's Inferno, Shakespearean works, the Bible and Marvel... medium of paper.... ...for the problem the narrator faces. It is unclear whether or not the narrator is able to muster the courage to ask the aforementioned “overwhelming question” (10). In lines 124-125, Eliot writes, “I heard the sirens singing, each for each. / I don't think they will sing to me." Perhaps the most important question is the love song that J. Alfred Prufock dares not sing to a siren he fears will not respond in kind. In the final stanza of the poem, Eliot writes: "We have lingered in the chambers of the sea / By sea girls garlanded with red and brown seaweed / Until human voices wake us and we drown" (129-131). Like an “etherized patient on a table” (3) approaching, a reader who has truly immersed himself in this work may feel as if he has awakened from a dream where anxiety loomed, where insecurity and ridicule lurked around every corner..