A common practice when facing a difficult choice, self-examination, is the centerpiece of two popular poems: Gregory Corso's The Marriage and J. Alfred Prufrock's The Love Song of TS Eliot. Both poems are dramatic monologues in which the speakers address the similar situations in which they find themselves. While the speaker of Eliot's poem has a nervous and timid approach in his attempts at romance, the hesitant postmodern speaker of Corso's poem uses sarcasm to attack. the institution of marriage. When these two monologues given by similar characters are analyzed together, the result is a dialogue that discusses two distinct viewpoints on the ideas of romance and love. Despite the similarities between these two poems, Corso and Eliot have little in common. Corso spent much of his youth between adoptive parents and prison, the latter being where he was introduced to poetry. Now recognized as a key member of the “Beat Generation,” a group of poets opposed to social conformity and traditional forms of poetry, Corso generally wrote poetry “about serious philosophical issues” (Olson 53). On the other hand, Eliot's education was more traditional where he attended Harvard and became a figure of immense influence in the literary world. Eliot's first major poetic publication: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock bears many similarities to Corso's postmodern poem Marriage, a poem written to criticize the philosophical problems associated with marriage. To begin, Corso's Marriage opens with two rhetorical questions that the speaker attempts to pose. respond throughout the poem. The questions: “Should I get married?” Do I have to be good? (Corso 1) are questions the speaker finds himself in the middle of paper......the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock. " International Journal Of Religion & Spirituality In Society 2.2 (2013): 35-41. OmniFile Full Text Select (HW Wilson). Web. December 4, 2013. Eliot, TS “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. Boston : Little, Brown, 1966. 369-372. Haiqin, Xue. “On “An Overwhelming Question” in J. Alfred Prufrock. Academic Web. . McCormick, J. Frank. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Shakespeare’s Hamlet.” The Explanator 1 (2004): 43. December 5, 2013. “Gregory’s Post-Vegetarian Ethical Dilemma.” Corso (Essay) » Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics 1-2 (2004): 53. Academic OneFile Web.. 2013.