as hard as he is. Prufrock imagines that other hands are working harder than him, a condition that necessitates his asking the question. But he imagines that he has time for tea first.

Later, Prufrock imagines himself as John the Baptist:

But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed/Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter/I am no prophet, and here's no great matter... 

John the Baptist's head was presented on a platter to Herod's wife. He is associating the weeping and fasting that biblical prophets engaged in with his own hemming and hawing over approaching the woman and asking the question.

Finally, and perhaps most famously, there is a reference to Hamlet, when Prufrock exclaims, "No! I am not Prince Hamlet; nor was meant to be..." This is an allusion to the famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy, and Prufrock is comparing his own inner dialogue with this famously tortured passage.

Generally, Eliot seems to be making these allusions in an effort to  show that his protagonist is trying to lend an epic, even heroic air to his tortured unwillingness to approach the woman. 

By alluding to other texts and stories, Eliot is able to bring in the entire theme, mood, feeling and plot of those other stories, with just one word or phrase.  It is almost like providing an internet link right in the middle of a story; you "click" on it, and it brings you to an entire other page of information and applications.  The "links" in this poem are several, and add a lot of dimension to Prufrock's plight.

One of the allusions is to Hamlet. He has spent the entire poem wondering if he should "disturb the universe" by asking "some overwhelming question" to a woman; he goes back and forth, being wishy-washy and fearful.  He wonders if it "would have been worth it, after all," to have asked the question just to have her respond, "That is not what I meant at all.  That is not it, at all."  Well, he finally decides, no, it would not be worth it. Here he states, "I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be," meaning, he was not a royal, brave, conniving, eloquent, profound man (as Hamlet was).  Instead, he says that he was "deferential, cautious, a bit obtuse; at time, indeed, almost ridiculous-almost, at times, the Fool."  Alluding to Hamlet helps us to understand that he feels enormous pressure; Hamlet is a famous tale of a man sent on an enormous task of revenge-he gives fancy and profound speeches, he greatly impacts everyone around him.  Prufrock is perhaps feeling that what he has to say is the same, but unlike Hamlet, he's not up to the task of doing it well.

One last allusion I'll mention is the mermaids that Prufrock hears "singing, each to each," but feels that he does not "think that they will sing" to him.  Mermaids are mythical, beautiful creatures that often, in stories, lured seamen to their deaths.  Prufrock can hear the alluring tune of the beautiful women in his life, of the potential of being with creatures he considers unattainable as mermaids, because they won't sing to him.  He feels unworthy, plain, out of their league, and rejected by the beautiful creatures around him.

Those are just a couple of the allusions in the play, and I hope that helps a bit!  Good luck!

The epigraph in Italian that opens the poem is a brief quotation from the 27th canto of Dante's Inferno. It is not cited or noted as being from Dante; Eliot uses it as a conceit to establish the idea that the speaker of the poem only consents to speak because he believes that what he has to say will never be repeated among the living, as is the case in Dante's Inferno.

In line 23, "and indeed there will be time" is an allusion to Andrew Marvell's 17th century poem "To His Coy Mistress." The speaker of Marvell's poem urges the object of his desire to give in to his advances because life is short. Prufrock, on the other hand, tries to convince himself that there will be plenty of time, because in Eliot's poem, the speaker is procrastinating when it comes to approaching attractive women.