Read the following lines from T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"—
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: "That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all."
Which sentence best analyzes the poet's use of allusion in this passage?
A. The speaker refers to Lazarus to convey the idea that people should live in the moment because life is short.
B. The speaker compares the universe to a ball to illustrate how difficult it would be to discuss "the overwhelming question."
C. The speaker mentions a famous painter to show how people pretend to be who they're not so they can fit in.
D. The speaker refers to marmalade, tea, and porcelain to reinforce his disillusionment with the American Dream.

Respuesta :

There is an allusion in the passage from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" that we can analyze in the following manner:

A. The speaker refers to Lazarus to convey the idea that people should live in the moment because life is short.

What is an allusion?

An allusion is a figure of speech in which a reference is made to something or someone that is well-known to readers. In the passage we are analyzing here, an allusion is made to the biblical figure Lazarus.

Lazarus was a man who had been dead for three days when Jesus Christ brought him back to life. Alluding to him conveys the idea of being dead by the speaker of the poem.

If the speaker feels as if he were Lazarus, having returned from the dead, he would probably tell others to not waste their lives like he did. He would tell them to live in the moment and enjoy life.

With the information above in mind, we can choose letter A as the best option.

Learn more about allusion here:

https://brainly.com/question/901202

Answer: A. The speaker refers to Lazarus to convey the idea that people should live in the moment because life is short.

Explanation: