T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was completed in 1911, and its 1915 publication arguably began literature's modernist movement. In a humorous but doleful manner, J. Alfred Prufrock wanders the city streets, gazing on tawdry hotels and parlors full of socialites with a languid torpor. Eliot uses metaphors to transform Prufrock’s city into an unsettling dreamscape where evening is an “etherised patient” and fog is a prowling yellow cat.

Skills: analysis, drawing inferences from text, close reading, identifying the relationship between words

About This Document

The Owl Eyes Analyzing Metaphor activity gives students an opportunity to practice examining and analyzing metaphors. Students will engage with specific selections of the text and work collaboratively to identify the vehicle, tenor, and implications of each metaphor. The main components include the following:

• A brief introduction to the text
• A detailed handout on metaphor types
• A step-by-step guide to activity procedure
• A detailed answer key for teachers

In completing this worksheet, students will learn to classify and analyze different kinds of metaphors in order to develop close reading skills and draw deeper inferences from the text.