T
he publication in June 1915 of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” was a pivotal event in modern poetry. While many critics dismissed it at the time as unskilledand obscure, Prufrock is now acknowledged as the first masterpiece of Modernism in English, as well as Eliot’s first important publication. In both its themes and technique, Prufrock broke sharply with the conventions of Romantic and Georgian poetry.
The exhibition, curated by Carey Adina Karmel, PhD candidate at the University of London, explores the genesis of the poem by way of various manuscript and typescript reproductions, as well as “exploding” the poem by providing materials illustrating Eliot’s evocative imagery, such as an authentic magic lantern. The exhibition includes multiple printings of Prufrock, from its debut in 1915 in Poetry magazine to its first independent appearance in book form in 1917, along with books from Eliot’s library that provided source material.
The exhibition’s title is a phrase from the poem: “I should have been a pair of ragged claws /
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”It is also a metaphor for the composition of Prufrock, explains Karmel: “Eliot's meter is raggedin the period use of the term, in the way that jazz music was originally described. Line lengths throughout Prufrock are also ragged vers libre;‘come and go’ rhymes with ‘Michelangelo’ in a bump of three single syllable words end-rhymed with a serpentine, proper noun of five syllables. Eliot's technique is such that the auditory pop is subterranean.”
All events are free and open to the public:
8 April 2015: Sir Christopher Ricks, William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities, and Co-Director, Editorial Institute, Boston University.“The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock: ‘the Muse in a psychopathic ward.’"The 102nd George Parker Winship Lecture.
5.30 P.M., Edison & Newman Room, Houghton Library.Sponsored by Houghton Library, the English Department, and the Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University
9 April 2015: Exhibition curator Carey Karmel will lead a walking tour,“Let us go and make our visit,” exploring Boston elements incorporated into “Prufrock” such as the Ether Monument in the Boston Public Garden.
2.00 P.M. E-mail Carey for rendezvous instructions and reserve:
23 April 2015:Robert Crawford, poet, and Professor of English and Director of Research for Planning, Publications, and Grants, University of St. Andrews. “Was T.S. Eliot Ever Young?” The 103rd George Parker Winship Lecture.
5.30 P.M., Edison & Newman Room, Houghton Library. Sponsored by Houghton Library and the English Department, Harvard University.
For additional information, contact Leslie Morris at Houghton Library, 617-495-2449.