Imagine that …

… Stephen King Is Quietly Enthralled By "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" | CrimeReads. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

… it was not until recent years, when I began to glut myself on the works of Stephen King, that I actually understood the poem. It’s not reported anywhere, really, but Stephen King is obsessed with Prufrock. Lines from the poem crop up everywhere from The Shining to Under the Dome to the Detective Bill Hodges series. I’m not sure if King is conscious of this—I wasn’t able to interview him—but he’s spent decades parsing this poem, often turning to sad, desperate J. Alfred to sort out his characters’ motivations and what drives them to the horrors that populate his books.