We can highlight the infinitives in the passage from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in the following manner:
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
The use of anaphora and the infinitives contributes to Prufrock's state of mind in the sense that they show how Prufrock does not live in the present moment. He is constantly imagining situations that will never take place. He never "does" anything, but thinks "to do" something.
Anaphora and repetition in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Anaphora is a literary device which consists of the repetition of a part of a sentence with the purpose of emphasizing an idea or its importance. In the poem we are analyzing here, we find the repetition of infinitives as highlighted above.
With such use of anaphora and repetition, the author of the poem indicates the state of mind and situation of the speaker, Prufrock. A shy and introverted man, Prufrock does not actually live the things he talks about. He is constantly imagining things, and that is shown through the repetition of infinitive verbs.
Learn more about anaphora here:
https://brainly.com/question/26285441
