Epigraph

 

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo

 

 

 



The epigraph of this poem is a six-line quotation from Canto 27 of the "Inferno" by the Renaissance Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Eliot doesn’t translate it out of the Italian, which shows that he was totally obsessed with Dante. Little references to this author pop up everywhere in Eliot’s poems, but this one is more obvious, because it’s a direct quotation.

The quote from this epigraph is said by one of the characters in the eighth circle of Hell in Dante's poem, where some of the worst people are stuck for eternity. This man’s name is Guido da Montefeltro, and when Dante asks to hear his story, here’s what he says:
"If I thought that my reply would be to someone who would ever return to earth, this flame would remain without further movement; but as no one has ever returned alive from this gulf, if what I hear is true, I can answer you with no fear of infamy."
Dante is really curious to know why Guido ended up so far down in Hell, but Guido is selfish and he’s afraid that people back on earth will find out about his sins and he’s concerned about his reputation. On the other hand, Guido explains that he is speaking freely to Dante only because he believes Dante is one of the dead who could never return to earth to report what he says.

In conclusion, the epigraph to this poem describes Prufrock’s ideal listener: one who is as lost as the speaker and will never reveal to the world the content of Prufrock’s present confessions.