The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock — GK Questions with Answers

1. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was written by —
   1. W. B. Yeats
   2. T. S. Eliot
   3. Ezra Pound
   4. W. H. Auden
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   Answer: (B) T. S. Eliot

   It is Eliot’s first major poem, published in 1915.

2. The evening in the poem is compared to —
   1. a sleeping child
   2. a patient etherised upon a table
   3. a closing flower
   4. a dying fire
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   Answer: (B) a patient etherised upon a table

   The famous opening simile sets the numbed, helpless mood of the whole poem.

3. The epigraph of the poem is taken from —
   1. Homer’s Odyssey
   2. Dante’s Inferno
   3. Virgil’s Aeneid
   4. Milton’s Paradise Lost
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   Answer: (B) Dante’s Inferno

   A damned soul in Dante’s Inferno speaks only because he thinks no one will carry the words back.

4. In the poem, the yellow fog is described as behaving like a —
   1. snake
   2. cat
   3. river
   4. curtain
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   Answer: (B) cat

   It rubs its back and muzzle on the window-panes, curls and falls asleep — a cat, never named.

5. The refrain of the poem concerns women talking of —
   1. Shakespeare
   2. Michelangelo
   3. Dante
   4. Botticelli
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   Answer: (B) Michelangelo

   "In the room the women come and go / Talking of Michelangelo."

6. "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" suggests that Prufrock’s life has been —
   1. rich and varied
   2. trivial and small-portioned
   3. spent in poverty
   4. devoted to art
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   Answer: (B) trivial and small-portioned

   His life has been counted out in tiny, meaningless amounts.

7. Prufrock compares himself unfavourably with —
   1. Prince Hamlet
   2. King Lear
   3. Othello
   4. Macbeth
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   Answer: (A) Prince Hamlet

   "I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be" — he is only an attendant lord.

8. The "overwhelming question" in the poem is —
   1. clearly a marriage proposal
   2. never actually stated
   3. a question about religion
   4. a question about money
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   Answer: (B) never actually stated

   Eliot leaves it blank so that it can stand for every decision never made.

9. The final line of the poem is —
   1. I grow old … I grow old
   2. Do I dare to eat a peach?
   3. Till human voices wake us, and we drown
   4. I have heard the mermaids singing
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   Answer: (C) Till human voices wake us, and we drown

   Waking into real life destroys the dream — and the poem ends there.

10. The term "objective correlative" was coined by —
    1. I. A. Richards
    2. T. S. Eliot
    3. F. R. Leavis
    4. William Empson
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    Answer: (B) T. S. Eliot

    Eliot used it for an object or situation that produces a feeling without naming it.

11. The poem is best described as a —
    1. pastoral elegy
    2. dramatic monologue in free verse
    3. Petrarchan sonnet sequence
    4. mock epic
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    Answer: (B) dramatic monologue in free verse

    One speaker, a silent listener, a critical moment — but in free verse.

12. Which of these best sums up Prufrock’s character?
    1. Bold but unlucky
    2. Self-aware but unable to act
    3. Cruel and calculating
    4. Simple and contented
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    Answer: (B) Self-aware but unable to act

    He sees every side of every question and is therefore paralysed.

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