The Writer's Persona

I don't know if we can still post but I'll give it a shot. In another English class we did a close analysis of "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" from a different perspective as in this class. We looked at how the writer's motives and personality comes out in his/her work. It was from a psychoanalytic standpoint, but I kind of threw that out the window and adopted my own interpretation because I'm not a big fan of it.
Anyway, the class began with a short documentary on Eliot... and having read the poem before, I paid close attention to the man behind the words. It was like watching a film adaptation of Prufrock in many aspects. Eliot was contemplative, analytic, but most importantly vicarious. When you read a good poem or book, or even find an appreciation for a specific character in literature, I think there is almost always a piece of the writer that you're reading about. Shakespeare's work has a comical, intellectual and thoughtful air about it; Hemingway is blunt, to the point, and masculine... and I can't help but associate these traits with the writers' own characteristics. Thelonius Monk said "A man's a genius just to play himself." I believe that to be true, that letting yourself into your own work is the basis for a successful piece. Just my thoughts, though :)