The Hollow Men - wikipedia The Hollow Men For other uses, see The Hollow Men ( disambiguation ). `` Not with a bang but a whimper '' redirects here. For other uses, see Dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot Written 1925 Country England Language English Lines 98 `` The Hollow Men '' ( 1925 ) is a poem by T.S. Eliot. Its themes are, like many of Eliot 's poems, overlapping and fragmentary, but it is recognized to be concerned most with post-World War I Europe under the Treaty of Versailles ( which Eliot despised : compare `` Gerontion '' ), the difficulty of hope and religious conversion, and, as some critics argue, Eliot 's own failed marriage ( Vivienne Haigh - Wood Eliot might have been having an affair with Bertrand Russell ). The poem is divided into five parts and consists of 98 lines of which the last four are `` probably the most quoted lines of any 20th - century poet writing in English ''. Contents 1 Journey of the character 2 Theme and context 3 Publication information 4 Influence in culture 4.1 Film 4.2 Literature 4.3 Multimedia 4.4 Video games 4.5 Music 4.6 Television 5 See also 6 References 7 External links Journey of the character Eliot 's characters often undergo a journey - either physical or spiritual or both. The Hollow Men seems to follow the otherworldly journey of the spiritually dead. These `` hollow men '' have the realization, humility and acknowledgement of their guilt and their status as broken, lost souls. The `` hollow men '' fail to transform their motions into actions, conception to creation, desire to fulfillment. This awareness of the split between thought and action coupled with their awareness of `` death 's various kingdoms '' and acute diagnosis of their hollowness, makes it hard for them to go forward and break through their spiritual sterility. And as the poem and their journey ends, they see `` the horror, the horror '' that Kurtz sees in The Heart of Darkness. There is a complete breakdown of language, prayer and the spirit as `` the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper ''. Theme and context Eliot wrote that he produced the title `` The Hollow Men '' by combining the titles of the romance `` The Hollow Land '' by William Morris with the poem `` The Broken Men '' by Rudyard Kipling : but it is possible that this is one of Eliot 's many constructed allusions, and that the title originates more transparently from Shakespeare 's Julius Caesar or from the character Kurtz in Joseph Conrad 's Heart of Darkness who is referred to as a `` hollow sham '' and `` hollow at the core ''. The two epigraphs to the poem, `` Mistah Kurtz -- he dead '' and `` A penny for the Old Guy '', are allusions to Conrad 's character and to Guy Fawkes, attempted arsonist of the English house of Parliament, and his straw - man effigy that is burned each year in the United Kingdom on Guy Fawkes Night. Some critics read the poem as told from three perspectives, each representing a phase of the passing of a soul into one of death 's kingdoms ( `` death 's dream kingdom '', `` death 's twilight kingdom '', and `` death 's other kingdom '' ). Eliot describes how we, the living, will be seen by `` Those who have crossed / With direct eyes (... ) not as lost / Violent souls, but only / As the hollow men / The stuffed men. '' The image of eyes figures prominently in the poem, notably in one of Eliot 's most famous lines `` Eyes I dare not meet in dreams ''. Such eyes are also generally accepted to be in reference to Dante 's Beatrice ( see below ). The poet depicts figures `` Gathered on this beach of the tumid river '' -- drawing considerable influence from Dante 's third and fourth cantos of the Inferno which describes Limbo, the first circle of Hell -- showing man in his inability to cross into Hell itself or to even beg redemption, unable to speak with God. Dancing `` round the prickly pear, '' the figures worship false gods, recalling children and reflecting Eliot 's interpretation of Western culture after World War I. The final stanza may be the most quoted of all of Eliot 's poetry : This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper. When asked if he would write these lines again, Eliot responded with a ' no ' : One reason is that while the association of the H - bomb is irrelevant to it, it would today come to everyone 's mind. Another is that he is not sure the world will end with either. People whose houses were bombed have told him they do n't remember hearing anything. Other significant references include the Lord 's Prayer, Shakespeare 's Julius Caesar, and Conrad 's An Outcast of the Islands ( `` Life is very long '' ). Publication information The poem was first published as now known on 23 November 1925, in Eliot 's Poems : 1909 -- 1925. Eliot was known to collect poems and fragments of poems to produce new works. This is clearest to see in his poems The Hollow Men and `` Ash - Wednesday '' where he incorporated previously published poems to become sections of a larger work. In the case of The Hollow Men four of the five sections of the poem were previously published : `` Poème '', published in the Winter 1924 edition of Commerce ( with a French translation ), became Part I of The Hollow Men. Doris 's Dream Songs in the November 1924 issue of Chapbook had the three poems : `` Eyes that last I saw in tears '', `` The wind sprang up at four o'clock '', and `` This is the dead land. '' The third poem became Part III of The Hollow Men. Three Eliot poems appeared in the January 1925 issue of his Criterion magazine : `` Eyes I dare not meet in dreams '', `` Eyes that I last saw in tears '', and `` The eyes are not here ''. The first poem became Part II of The Hollow Men and the third became Part IV. Additionally, the March 1925 of Dial published The Hollow Men, I - III which was finally transformed to The Hollow Men Parts I, II, and IV in Poems : 1909 -- 1925. ( Publication information from Gallup ) Influence in culture This section appears to contain trivial, minor, or unrelated references to popular culture. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject 's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances ; add references to reliable sources if possible, otherwise delete it. ( May 2017 ) This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( May 2017 ) The Hollow Men has had a profound effect on the Anglo - American cultural lexicon -- and by a relatively recent extension, world culture -- since it was published in 1925. One source states that the last four lines of the poem are `` probably the most quoted lines of any 20th - century poet writing in English. '' The sheer variety of references moves some of the questions concerning the poem 's significance outside the traditional domain of literary criticism and into the much broader category of cultural studies. Examples of such influences include : Film Eliot 's poem was a strong influence on Francis Ford Coppola and the movie Apocalypse Now ( 1979 ), in which antagonist Colonel Kurtz ( played by Marlon Brando ) is depicted reading parts of the poem aloud to his followers. Furthermore, the Complete Dossier DVD release of the film includes a 17 - minute special feature of Kurtz reciting the poem in its entirety. The poem 's epigraph, `` Mistah Kurtz - he dead '', is a quote from Conrad 's Heart of Darkness ( 1899 ), upon which the film is loosely based. The final stanza is printed one line at a time at the beginning of the television production of Stephen King 's The Stand ( 1994 ). The poem is also referenced in part by the character who feels responsible for the deadly `` Captain Trips '' virus being unleashed. The trailer for the film Southland Tales ( 2006 ), directed by Richard Kelly, plays on the poem, stating : `` This is the way the world ends, not with a whimper but with a bang. '' The film also quotes the line a number of times, mostly in voice - overs. Beverly Weston discusses the line `` Life is very long '' at the beginning of August : Osage County. In George Cukor 's classic remake of A Star Is Born ( 1954 ), Jack Carson 's film studio PR man Matt Libby refers to the death of James Mason 's character Norman Maine dismissively, quoting : `` This is the way the world ends : not with a bang - with a whimper. '' Literature Stephen King 's The Dark Tower series contains multiple references to `` The Hollow Men '' ( as well as The Waste Land, most prominently The Dark Tower III : The Waste Lands ( 1991 ) ). King also makes reference to `` The Hollow Men '' in Pet Sematary ( 1983 ) with : `` Or maybe someone who had escaped from Eliot 's poem about the hollow men. I should have been a pair of ragged claws, '' the latter sentence of which is taken from Eliot 's poem `` The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock '' ( 1915 ). Nevil Shute 's novel, On the Beach ( 1957 ), takes its name from the second stanza of Part IV of the poem and extracts from the poem, including the passage in which the novel 's title appears, have been printed in the front papers of some editions of the book including the 1957 first US edition. Kami Garcia 's novel Beautiful Creatures contains this quote. Karen Marie Moning 's Fever Series novel, Shadowfever, contains quotes from this poem. Multimedia Chris Marker created a 19 - minute multimedia piece for the Museum of Modern Art in New York City titled Owls At Noon Prelude : The Hollow Men ( 2005 ), which was influenced by Eliot 's poem. In the card game Cards Against Humanity, there is a black card citing the last three lines of the poem, but allowing players to replace `` a whimper '' with the text of a white card, for humorous effect. Video games In the video game Shadow Man, the final boss, Legion, quotes `` this is the way the world ends, Michael, not with a bang but with a whimper '' just before giving the final blow to the protagonist in the bad ending. The full poem is included in one of the flashbacks in Super Columbine Massacre RPG ! In the video game Kairo, there is a quote from the poem on a wall in the `` supersecret '' location. In the video game Metal Gear Solid 2 : Sons of Liberty, the AI Colonel in the final speech quotes `` And this is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper ''. Music Denis ApIvor wrote a work called The Hollow Men for baritone, male chorus and orchestra around 1939. It had only one performance, in 1950, under the conductor Constant Lambert, and produced by the BBC through the influence of Edward Clark. The American new wave band Devo partially lifted from the poem for the chorus to the song `` The Shadow '' on their seventh album Total Devo ( 1988 ) The song `` Hollow Man '' appears as the first track on the album Doppelgänger ( 1983 ) by the group Daniel Amos ; the song is a paraphrase of Eliot 's poem spoken over the music of `` Ghost of the Heart '' played backwards ; `` Ghost of the Heart '' is the last song on the group 's previous album ¡ Alarma ! ( 1981 ) The Argentinian rock band Divididos has a song named after the poem ( `` Los hombres huecos '' ) on their debut album 40 dibujos ahí en el piso ( 1988 ) Members of the Minneapolis hiphop collective Doomtree have referenced this poem in a number of collective and individual songs, including the single `` No Homeowners '' on the collective 's 2007 album False Hopes, ``. 38 Airweight '' on 2015 's All Hands, and in the single `` Flash Paper '' from member Sims 's 2016 album More than Ever. The last line of the poem is referenced in Amanda Palmer 's song `` Strength Through Music '', based on the Columbine High School massacre. Eliot 's poem inspired The Hollow Men ( 1944 ), a piece for trumpet and string orchestra by composer Vincent Persichetti and one of his most popular works. Jon Foreman of Switchfoot says that the band 's song `` Meant to Live '' is inspired by Eliot 's poem. The Gaslamp Killer song In the Dark... has the lyrics `` This is the way the world ends '' in it. The Greek black metal band Rotting Christ uses excerpts of the poem as lyrics for the song `` Thine Is the Kingdom '' on their album Sleep of the Angels. The final stanza of the poem is used as the song 's chorus Tim Minchin uses the last stanza at the end of his song : the Perineum Millennium. The title song from The Smiths ' studio album The Queen Is Dead features the closing repeated refrain, ' Life is very long ', which the lyricist Morrissey has then personalised by adding the line ' when you 're lonely '. Axel Thesleff created a musical interpretation of the poem in form of a five - track LP. British 90s band EMF used the line `` this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends '' using wordplay to add `` not with a band '' in their song Longtime on the album Schubert Dip The hardcore punk group Code Orange use lines of the poem in their song `` IV ( My Mind Is A Prison ) ''. The Australian band TISM has a song on their 1986 EP Form and Meaning reach Ultimate Communion about T.S. Eliot titled `` Mistah Eliot, He Wanker ''. The 2011 release by North Carolina - based band Scapegoat, I Am Alien, references the poem in the title track : `` So thank you Mr. Elliot for showing us the way the world will end, Not with a bang, but with a whimper on the wind, And I 've come to tell all of my friends, That it starts with a bang, but ends with the wind. '' Television Japanese animation series : Highschool of the Dead - episode 12 British television series : Doctor Who ( `` The Lazarus Experiment '' ) and Foyle 's War ( series 1, episode 3, which also name - drops `` Ash Wednesday '' and Horizons magazine, to which Eliot contributed ) American television shows : 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, Northern Exposure, the title of the finale of Dexter 's sixth season ( in which the protagonist also quotes the titular verse ), Dollhouse ( on `` The Hollow Men '' episode ), Frasier, Mad Men, and The X-Files ( on the `` Pusher '' episode ). `` The Haunting Hour '' ( `` Scarecrow '' ) `` The Stand '' ( The Plague ) British television series The Fall references the poem in its title and in series 1 episode 3 serial killer Paul Spector writes the lines ' Between the idea and the reality, Between the motion and the act falls the Shadow ' in his journal of his murders. Netflix television series `` Travelers '', Reilly Dolman 's character Phillip references the poem in season 1 episode 5 when interrogated with the question `` How does the world end ? '' In the season 4 finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Holden Radcliffe quotes the final stanza, but is unable to finish it as he gets erased from a virtual world that he created. See also Heat death of the universe References Jump up ^ See, for instance, the biographically - oriented work of one of Eliot 's editors and major critics, Ronald Schuchard. ^ Jump up to : `` T.S. Eliot, the Poet, is Dead in London at 76 ''. The New York Times. 5 January 1965. Retrieved 10 December 2013. Jump up ^ Eliot, T.S. Inventions of the March Hare : Poems 1909 -- 1917 ( Harcourt, 1997 ) pp. 395 ISBN 0 - 15 - 100274 - 6 Christopher Ricks, the editor, cited a letter dated 10 January 1935 to the Times Literary Supplement. Jump up ^ ' T.S. Eliot at Seventy, and an Interview with Eliot ' in Saturday Review. Henry Hewes. 13 September 1958 in Grant p. 705. Jump up ^ Gallup, Donald. T.S. Eliot : A Bibliography ( A Revised and Extended Edition ) pp. 33, 210 -- 11 ( Harcourt Brace & World 1969 ). Jump up ^ Murphy, Russell Elliott ( 2007 ). Critical companion to T.S. Eliot : a literary reference to his life and work. New York, NY : Facts On File. p. 257. ISBN 978 - 0816061839. Jump up ^ Dargis, Manohla ( 14 November 2007 ). `` Southland Tales ''. The New York Times. access - date = requires url = ( help ) Jump up ^ anon. `` T.S Eliot : Timeless Influence on a Modern Generation ''. Brushed with mystery. Retrieved 10 December 2013. Jump up ^ Shute, Nevil ( 1957 ). On The Beach. NY, NY : William Morrow and Company. Jump up ^ `` Chris Marker 's short film : Owls At Noon, Prelude : The Hollow Men ''. MOMA.org. 2005. Jump up ^ `` Metal Gear Solid 2 ending analysis ''. junkerhq.net. Retrieved 6 February 2016. Jump up ^ David Wright, Denis ApIvor Jump up ^ Spector, Irwin ( 14 May 1969 ). `` On Stage at K.U ''. Lawrence Journal World. Retrieved 10 December 2013. Jump up ^ `` Switchfoot - Behind the Songs of The Beautiful Letdown ''. Retrieved 25 March 2017. Jump up ^ `` The Hollow Men LP by Axel Thesleff ''. soundcloud.com. Retrieved 3 June 2016. Jump up ^ `` Lyrics To EMF Longtime ''. metrolyrics.com. Retrieved 22 June 2016. Jump up ^ Freeman, Molly ( 16 May 2017 ). `` Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 Finale Review & Discussion ''. Screen Rant. Retrieved 18 May 2017. External links Text of the poem with notes T.S. Eliot Bibliography Early poems `` The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock '' `` Portrait of a Lady '' `` Preludes '' `` Whispers of Immortality '' `` Gerontion '' The Waste Land `` The Hollow Men '' Ash Wednesday Ariel Poems Journey of the Magi A Song for Simeon Later poems Old Possum 's Book of Practical Cats `` Bustopher Jones '' `` Gus : The Theatre Cat '' `` Growltiger 's Last Stand '' Burnt Norton East Coker The Dry Salvages Little Gidding Four Quartets Plays Sweeney Agonistes The Rock Murder in the Cathedral The Family Reunion The Cocktail Party The Confidential Clerk The Elder Statesman Prose Selected Essays, 1917 - 1932 `` Hamlet and His Problems '' `` Tradition and the Individual Talent '' The Sacred Wood A Choice of Kipling 's Verse ( 1941 ) `` The Frontiers of Criticism '' Adaptations CATS ( 1981 musical, 1998 film ) Publishing The Criterion Faber and Faber T.S. Eliot Prize T.S. Eliot Prize ( Truman State University ) Related Tom & Viv ( 1994 film ) People Eliot family Vivienne Haigh - Wood Eliot ( first wife ) Valerie Eliot ( second wife ) Henry Ware Eliot ( father ) Charlotte Champe Stearns ( mother ) William Greenleaf Eliot ( grandfather ) E. Martin Browne John Davy Hayward Ezra Pound Jean Jules Verdenal William Butler Yeats Commons Wikibooks Wikiquote Wikisource texts Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Hollow_Men&oldid=808965002 '' Categories : 1925 poems Poetry by T.S. Eliot World War I poems Hidden categories : Pages using citations with accessdate and no URL EngvarB from May 2017 Use dmy dates from May 2017 Articles with trivia sections from May 2017 Articles needing additional references from May 2017 All articles needing additional references Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Italiano Tiếng Việt Edit links This page was last edited on 6 November 2017, at 09 : 08. 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Question: this is the way the world ends movie quote
Answer: "Eyes I dare not meet in dreams"