Thievery

"Immature poets imitate, Mature poets steal."

-T.S. Eliot

Eliot is a thief. He knows it. He admits it. And he expects his readers to understand it. He expects them to recognize where he has stolen thoughts, lines, and ideas from. He expects you to see the connections between those stolen goods. Poetry is a complex system of symbols and images. If a reader cannot process the allusions created by T. S. Eliot, they miss the meaning of his poetry completely.

In the case of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", here is a great site that points out the allusions within the poem. What? You haven't read Dante's Inferno? Well...better get started.

http://www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/5616/prufrock.html