I am Lazarus, come from the dead
Isaac Oberman, Logos
Since being recommended to me by a friend, T.S. Eliot’s poem The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock echoes in my brain like voices shouting in a cave. Eliot’s fanciful images reverberate in my head quite often, unfiltered voices lifting and falling in overlapping sound. Consider the following soniforous offerings:
Ragged claws scuttling.
Mermaids singing each to each.
I have measured my life with coffee spoons.
Michelangelo.
Do I dare to eat a peach?
Let us go and make our visit.
I am Lazarus, come from the dead.
The poet Eliot presents the story of Prufrock, who, in the course of an evening, finds himself having difficulty articulating himself while at a party. He wants to speak, to “force the moment to its crisis,” [1] but struggles time after time to speak. Themes of self-restraint, loneliness, aging, resignation, and fading into the annals of history emerge naturally from his internal struggle. The poem has often been described by seasoned readers as one you understand more the older you get. Perhaps a more apt description is that your perspective changes during each session with the poem. Prufrock is a hard figure to grapple with, because he is every one of us. Prufrock is as infinite as humanity and time.
In one of my most recent readings of this poem, I decided to change how I read the reference to Lazarus. The Bible has two Lazaruses (Lazari?), and both of them die, which isn’t a great track record for any potential Lazarus reading this. Prufrock calls himself Lazarus in a stanza where he is attempting to gather the strength to speak but once again is worried about being misunderstood, and so bites his tongue. [2] I had always read this Lazarus to be Lazarus the friend of Christ, because he is the one who is actually resurrected in his respective story. With this Lazarus (helpfully denoted Lazarus #1 for the rest of this poem), Prufrock is intimating to the reader that his grand gesture of expressing himself at this party will be as incredible as new life, and still met with indifference. When interpreted using Lazarus #1, Prufrock is egotistical and self-centered. He compares himself and his statement to the action of overcoming death, and will take no less a reaction than the astonishment of the villagers in Bethany.
Lazarus #2 on the other hand comes from the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, a story about a beggar dying and going to heaven while the rich man, who did not care for him, is sent to hell. The rich man begs Lazarus to send him a drop of water to parch his dry mouth. Abraham, standing nearby, tells him to back off and leave Lazarus alone; the rich man received what was good during his life, and now receives his justice after death. At this point, the rich man accepts his fate, but he asks Abraham if he won’t send Lazarus to warn his brothers of the punishment that awaits them. Abraham tells him that they have the prophets, and they should listen to them.
The following is said;
'Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
Then Abraham said,
'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if someone should rise from the dead.' [3]
When Lazarus #2 is read in Lovesong, the reader sees an inversion of the parable; the situation is so dire that Abraham has sent Lazarus to communicate the message of repentance. This time, instead of indifference, there is an active scorning of Prufrock/Lazarus #2. Prufrock is now not a self-absorbed introvert shy of speaking, but a prophet called to repeat a message that has been preached again and again. And he is tired. A man on the street corner sits on the curb next to a “THE END IS NEAR” sign while exhaustedly smoking his last cigarette, as people walk by with earbuds in, oblivious.
Reading Lovesong with the image of Lazarus #2 is a reminder that when we have a message, we must speak it, working through exhaustionm preaching to unlistening ears. Another figure Prufrock compares himself to in the poem is John the Baptist, when he worries that he “sees his head…brought in upon a platter.” [4] Prufrock worries that the people will kill him for repeatedly harping on them the need to worry, to act, and so out of fear refuses to speak. Unlike Prufrock, however, John the Baptist never stopped his preaching of “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” [5] Do not sit idly by as Prufrock might. Do not be resigned. Lent is a reminder to fight for the things that are important to us, because the kingdom of heaven IS at hand.
Notes
[1] Eliot, T. S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Collected Poems 1909-1962. 1963. Line
[2] “That is not what I meant at all; That is not it at all.”
[3] Luke 16:30-31
[4] Eliot, T.S. Love Song.
[5] Matthew 3:2 ESV
