Do I dare to eat a peach?/I eat men like air.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
T. S. Eliot

Lady Lazarus
Sylvia Plath


To most people, these poems have little to nothing in common, save for the mention of Lazarus.
To me, they have everything. I had my first exposure to these poems (and the poets who wrote them) about a year ago and they have stuck with me thus far and show no sign of leaving. When I read The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot, I spent a good deal of last May and June obsessing over the poem, tasting the words over and over again, trying to understand them, and and although I still don't understand most of it, I love it more than is healthy. I realize now that this is why I love the poem so much. I love it because the words are beautiful, even though I don't understand them. Particularly the line "Do I dare to eat a peach?" because it makes no sense to me at all. It's beautiful, and delicious, but I do not understand it, and that is why it stays with me. Although Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath has also possessed me since I first read it, it is for an entirely different reason. I understand every word, I understand the point, and I have felt it. I love it for that and because the words feel right in my mouth and they have a haunting aftertaste once I've spit them out. I also love her use of the number three and the extremes that appear in every poem that she writes. While I understand the majority of the poem, I do not understand the last line, "I eat men like air." Unlike the Eliot poem, I have an intense desire to understand it. I do not know if it is because I have never read the story of Lazarus and do not understand the reference, or if it is just something where I'm more of an idiot than everyone else and I haven't thought of it yet, but it stays in the back of my mind until something calls it forward, bringing meaning and understanding with it. However, please please please do not tell me what it means.
I don't like to say things like this, but I think I may love The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock more than I love Lady Lazarus because there are so many Plath poems that I like as much or better than Lady Lazarus but I'm not sure. But now I have to go learn Stats by Tuesday.

In a nutshell, I love things that don't make sense...with the exception of Stats.
//Amelia