"Portrait of a Lady" is a poem by American-British poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965), first published in September 1915 in '' Others: A Magazine of the New Verse. '' It was published again in March 1916 in ''Others: An Anthology of the New Verse,'' in February 1917 (without the epigraph) in ''The New Poetry: An Anthology,'' and finally in his 1917 collection of poems, ''Prufrock and Other Observations.'' The poem's title is widely seen to be derived from the novel of the same name by

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

.Eliot, it can be noted, was not the only 20th-century poet to borrow James's title.

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

also wrote a poem titled "Portrait of a Lady," while

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

wrote a poem he called "Portrait d'une Femme." The poem's epigraph is a famous quotation from

Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...

's play ''

The Jew of Malta ''The Jew of Malta'' (full title: ''The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta'') is a play by Christopher Marlowe, written in 1589 or 1590. The plot primarily revolves around a Maltese Jewish merchant named Barabas. The original story comb ...

'': "Thou hast committed - / Fornication: but that was in another country, / And besides, the wench is dead." The poem is one of the two main Boston poems written by Eliot, the other being "

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", commonly known as "Prufrock", is the first professionally published poem by American-born British poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). Eliot began writing "Prufrock" in February 1910, and it was first publishe ...

". It shows upper class society of the time as something rather empty and forlorn. The main focus of the poem, however, is the speaker, who in his own depiction of this upper class lady as soulless and empty, reveals himself as the one who is truly callous and unfeeling. The poem tells the story of a failed friendship in three episodes, occurring over a period of ten months. In Part I, the speaker visits the Lady's apartment in December after going with her to a concert, reports her talk of friendship, and suggests that he prefers a more vigorous approach to life. In Part II, the Lady complains about her age, envies her visitor's youth, and says that April sunsets and memories of Paris reconcile her with life, "after all"; again, her visitor turns from her to the world of newspapers, sports and comics, though confessing that he also has moments of exquisite regret. In Part III the speaker takes his farewell from the Lady before going abroad; she wonders why they have not become friends, asks him to write to her and describes her melancholy, solitary fate; in the close the speaker thinks of the Lady possibly dying and questions his behavior towards her. Like many of Eliot's early poems, "Portrait of a Lady" shows heavy influence from

Jules Laforgue Jules Laforgue (; 16 August 1860 – 20 August 1887) was a Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet. Critics and commentators have also pointed to Impressionism as a direct influence and his poetry has been called "part-symbo ...

. Dale, Peter, ''Poems of Jules Laforgue''. Anvil Press, 1986. For example, in 'Another Complaint of my Lord Pierrot', Laforgue has the lines: While Eliot has the lines:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait Of A Lady (Poem) 1915 poems Poetry by T. S. Eliot Works originally published in Others: A Magazine of the New Verse American poems Modernist poems