As I discussed in class I believe that T.S. Elliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was written as if it were a journal entry.
One could come to this conclusion for many reasons. It is very inconsistant. It starts off as if someone is talking to another person and then digresses into the feelings of a person just rambling to try and get things out of their head.
For instance:
And indeed there will be time/ to wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"/ Time to turn back and descend the stair,/ With a blad spot in the middle of my hair.
Here we can assume that a person is trying to build up the courage to go and do something. He is giving himself a pep talk of sorts. You can always turn back if you don't want to tell this person how you feel.
I liked the references made in class that he was watching a person from a far. This only solidifies why I think it would be a journal. He could be sitting in a coffee shop watching one of the waitresses or even a female that often visits with friends to discuss poetry over tea and he is sitting trying to build up his courage to ask her if she would like to join him someday for tea.
This idea of the coffee shop also could explain the references to the repeated lines:
In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo.
This could be him writing what he has over heard the women talking about over their tea.
As the poem progresses it is obvious that the man is losing his nerve and that he has started to day dream because he knows that he will no longer be able to walk up to the woman he wants.
Jerz: Am Lit II (EL 267): Eliot, ''The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock''