What is the yellow fog compared to in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"?
In "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," T. S. Eliot uses figurative language to describe the yellow fog in terms of an animal, most likely a cat. He does not use simile or direct metaphor to explicitly say that the yellow fog is a cat or is like a cat, but the language he uses to describe the behavior of the fog is language we might more usually associate with a cat.
Certainly, the fog is described as being animate. It can perceive the world around it—"seeing" that the night is soft, the fog curls itself around the house and, like a living thing, falls asleep. Some of the terms used to describe figurative parts of the fog creature are also terms we would apply to cats, such as the emphasis upon its use of its tongue. When we imagine the fog rubbing its metaphorical "muzzle" against...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
window panes, "slipp[ing] by the terrace," making "a sudden leap," and then eventually settling itself down to sleep, we picture it as an animal, something spry and familiar with the environment it inhabits. While the fog is not directly compared to a cat, most readers will likely think of a cat, given the characteristics that Eliot evokes.
What metaphor describes the yellow fog and smoke in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"?
In T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the speaker uses the metaphor of a cat to describe the yellow fog and smoke.
This metaphor is especially appropriate, for the speaker describes the yellow fog as rubbing “its back upon the window-panes” and rubbing its muzzle along the windows. It licks “into the corners of the evening.” It lingers around pools and allows the soot to fall upon its back. It slips “by the terrace” and leaps up suddenly. Then it curls up around the house and falls asleep.
The metaphor of a cat helps us imagine the movement of the yellow fog and smoke, which might otherwise be unknown to us. We have all seen a cat act like this, but to take these motions and apply them to the fog and smoke is both delightful and wonderfully descriptive.
The speaker cannot seem to quite let go of the metaphor, for it is especially apt. In the next stanza, he returns to it again, showing the yellow smoke sliding “along the street,” slinking smoothly and easily like a cat and “rubbing its back upon the window-panes.” Again, we picture a cat marking its territory. The smoke and fog have claimed their territory as well.