In at least two hundred words, compare and contrast "the love song of j. alfred prufrock" with "grass." discuss the themes and poetic styles of both poems, and explain how they relate to american modernism

Both poems are typical modernist poems, which means they were written in an epoch centered on human alienation from traditional romantic and romanticist ideals such as love, patriotism, etc. Both describe humans in technical terms. In "Prufrock", the speaker compares the evening with "the patient etherized upon a table" and says that he is "formulated, sprawling on a pin"; in "Grass", the speaker is the grass which refers to humans as mere bodies, piled up on battlefields. Emotions are suppressed, language and style are bare, direct, almost mundane. The verse is free and unrestrained in both poems.

Yet, there are many differences in themes, goals and sensibility. Whereas "Prufrock" is a poem about one man incapable of dealing with his own ego and his surroundings, introverted, clumsy and almost anti-social, "Grass" deals with a totally different matter. It tackles the issue of war, challenging traditional patriotic views of it. It never mentions war or death, but they are still its central issues. While "Prufrock" describes meaninglessness on an individual level, "Grass" does it on a broader, social level through a kind of an understatement: war is not a terrible phenomenon - it is just piles of bodies that get covered by grass. Just like the modern world dehumanizes Prufrock, war dehumanizes people in general, bringing them down to meat. Even worse - it brings them down to monuments, so other people would stop their journey at those battlefields and ask questions.