Imagery for The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

the fog/the smoke- the fog in this poem is metaphorically conected to cat. Some cats can be considered an omen, so the fog could be an omen to the narrator of this poem to not go to the party. Fog and smoke are both things that go away quickly. For example, all it takes for fog to disappear is the sun or a little bit of wind shifting it in another direction. The fog and smoke could symbolize to the narrator the shifting satisfaction of actually going into the party (his wondering of "is it really worth it").

the color yellow- by some definitions, the color yellow means cowardly. The way the color yellow is used in this poem could be telling us that the narrator's indecision to go to the party is actually the fear of rejection from the woman who the poem is for. Yellow can also mean jealous or envious, meaning that the narrator is not necessarily jealous of people being at the party, but that they get to socialize with the woman the song is for and he doesn't.