“The Love Song of J Alfred

Prufrock” Vocabulary

Vocabulary from“The Love Song of J Alfred

Prufrock”1. Etherized2. Tedious3. presume4. digress5. malinger

6. Formulated7. assert8. deferential9. obtuse10. linger

1. etherized

LET us go then, you and I,When the evening is spread out

against the skyLike a patient etherized upon a table;

v. -anesthetized with ether as before an operation

2. tedious

Streets that follow like a tedious argumentOf insidious intent

-adj. tiresome because of length, boring

3. presume

I know the voices dying with a dying fall

Beneath the music from a farther room.

So how should I presume?

v.-to expect something without justification; to take for granted

4. digress

Is it perfume from a dress         65That makes me so digress?

-v. to depart from the main subject; to ramble

5. malinger

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully Smoothed by long fingers,

Asleep … tired … or it malingers, Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.

-v. to pretend incapacity or illness to avoid work

6. formulated

And I have known the eyes already, known them all—      The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,Then how should I beginTo spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?         60

And how should I presume?

-v. reduced to or expressed as a formula

7. Assert

My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,

My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—

(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)

-v. confidently stated without proof, to maintain or affirm

8. deferential

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;Am an attendant lord, one that will doTo swell a progress, start a scene or two,Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,Deferential, glad to be of use,         115Politic, cautious, and meticulous;Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;At times, indeed, almost ridiculous-

-adj. yielding to someone else’s opinions or values

9. obtuse

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;Am an attendant lord, one that will doTo swell a progress, start a scene or two,Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,Deferential, glad to be of use,         115Politic, cautious, and meticulous;Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;At times, indeed, almost ridiculous-

-adj. lacking quickness of intellect

10. linger

We have lingered in the chambers of the seaBy sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and browTill human voices wake us, and we drown.

-v. to be slow in leaving