Literary and sound devices

"The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock", by T.S. Eliot, is a poem that employs many literary and sound devices. Among these are similes, personification, repetion, allusion, and imagery. These devices contribute to the tone of the poem, doleful, and the theme of indecision leading to missed opportunities.

Simile: "the evening... spread out against the sky like a patient etherised upon a table", it describes the somber outdoor setting that contrasts to the party setting going on later in the poem.

Personification: "yellow fog that rugs its back upon the window panes". This is also a descriptive tool that aids in setting the melancholy mood and tone of the poem.
Allusion: "I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet", he is alluding to John the Baptist. Other allusions "I am an attendant lord" also reveal Prufrock's character, ultimately characterizing him as a sad and lonely man, tying him into the tone.

Imagery:  "should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas", he is indicating that he wishes he hadn't been born. Prufrock also does not feel comfortable revealing his feelings- he views it as a lantern throwing "nerves in patterns on a screen". So this literary device also reveals the inner feelings of Prufrock.

Repetition: "In the room the women come and go talking of Michaelangelo" continually brings the reader back to the setting that the speaker finds himself in. In addition, Prufrock continually think over and tell us the idea of revealing a woman at the party his true feelings, but he cannot.