T. S. Eliot in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock used the interior monologue.
The poem was started at Harvard in 1910, then continued in Munich and Paris. It was dedicated to a friend Jean Verdenal, who later died in the battle of the Dardenelles (May 1915). The poem belongs to (appartiene) the collection Prufrock and Other Observations of 1917.
The speaker of this ironic monologue is a modern, urban man who, like many of his kind (tipo), feels isolated and incapable of decisive action. Irony is apparent from the title, for this is not a conventional love song. Prufrock would like to speak of love to a woman, but he does not dare.
The poem opens with a quoted passage from Dante’s INFERNO (canto XXVII,61-66, where Guido da Montefeltro, chief of the Ghibellini appears) suggesting that Prufrock is one of the damned (dannati) and that he speaks only because he is sure no one will listen. Since the reader is overhearing (ascoltando) his thoughts, the poem seems at first rather incoherent. But Prufrock repeats certain phrases and returns to certain core (centrali) ideas as the poem progresses. The “you and I” of the opening line includes the reader, suggesting that only by accompanying Prufrock one can understand his problems.
Prufrock’s weaknesses (debolezza) could be mocked (presa in giro), but he is a pathetic figure, not grand enough to be tragic.