The Hollow Men by T S Eliot - Famous poems, famous poets. - All Poetry brett masters : is such an incredible poet and this is one of his best SightlessUnless : This poem is the reason I write poetry Nassy Fesharaki : Nice poem And this poem...the most classic in during our course...is...possibly, the richest JonHazle : lol act4istone wats a firey wath Rem Adore : This is where I would ask the story of redemption; If God so loved the world, will kindness be sent along side the firey wath? Hack Jouley : Drew can get weird though Hack Jouley : Drew Franklin and I are best friends BUT.. not as close of friends as Mr. Hastings and I!! Hack Jouley : April fools bruh Hack Jouley : BTW guys I'm jack houley I'm kinda a big deal I'm on varsity lacrosse and soccer Hack Jouley : I love english so much its so fun and mr hastings is cool Hack Jouley : Mr hastings is my best friend ever!!! Solving Ennui : So many of my poems start so strong, and the cross associations between the first stanza are great! Loving it.

Marco Dellorusso : It's a powerful poem. I love the imagery it invokes, as well as it's esoteric meaning. Much better then The Waste Land. Emilyelisabethwr : I love this poem Bevlyn T Mashava : I love this poem it tacks me back to those days in school and stil keeps me going. D I Harrison : I shall re-read The Four Quartets shortly, at the moment for a little while I'm focusing on John Clare and George Herbert. However, you might feel, given what you think are my views on Eliot, that I have just written an extended poem (a Science Fiction story in sometimes rhymes, and sometimes not, that owes a little of it's construction - but not style - on the Great Eliot himself. There are a couple of direct quotes from The Hollow Man. I think I said my favourite Eliot poem - and I never actually said I didn't like him and I never said I didn't like The Wasteland, which in fact I do.

It is possible to like something, to admire it, but find a great many things that you are unhappy with.I have a settled opinion, that's true, but which came from recent exhaustive reading and study of the short volume of 'Selected Poems' [Faber (1948) revised edition - I believe in the early or mid 60's) I do hope you are not assuming that, as with some people, I have a problem with Eliot simply because I had not read enough. I do hope that we might continue on with this little, ultra-non-group 'group' of whoever's interested enough to joinin thoughtful discussion of poetry. I have enjoyed reading your thoughts on Eliot, and got some satisfaction over putting some of my thoughts out there to catch what they catch. Anyway, back to the point. I have also shamelessly lifted the title of this poem to use as the title of my poem. called 'The Hollow Men?', I have entered it into a contest to write a Science Fiction poem. If you would care to take a look, I'd be very interested in your feedback, and a little light unpaid proofing(?).

You have a good intellect, and one which I can respect - so your opinion on some of my writings would be an invaluable service to me. Kind regards, D I H Morag : Have you written your poem made up of quotations yet? I'd love to see it. Eliot did not write poetry about the Great War. The obvious reason was that he wasn't in it. Even if he hadn't been American, his health problems mean that he would never have made a soldier. However, The Waste Land is clearly about the aftermath of the war. Look at the characters - the exiled Russian aristocrat, Madame Sosostris, the couple in 'A Game of Chess', the typist and her boyfriend - they are all part of the feverish disillusionment of the 20s, the feeling of "everything's pointless, so let's try to distract ourselves with sex, occultism, drugs - anything to keep reality out." For so many people that time was a Waste Land all right. However, you're right - we'll never agree on this. I like the poem and you don't. Why not try The Four Quartets? They're very different. D I Harrison : I want you pointing out my tiny errors.

We can all improve. Yes, I did read The Four Quartets, but a while ago - so I probably need to re-read. I fear we will never agree on The Wasteland. For me, Eliot could have revised it a thousand times more and, in my view, the comments I make remain valid. I believe all T.S.Eliot was doing was the poetic equivalent of asking the orchestra on the Titanic if they knew any good waltzes. However wonderfully Eliot put together the references and revised the arrangement, all that proves to me that his was a towering intellect (probably one of the great intellects of the 20th century), he had a prodigious and more than encyclopedic knowledge, and understanding, of much of the humanities, classics, literature and a dozen other -ologies. What it most certainly does not prove to me is that he had a great poetic imagination. One of his most important works, The Wasteland - what does it mean? Where is there, in any of his work, writings on the Great War; that most terrible of wars, just finished.

Utterly destructive of people's lives, bodies, minds, and souls; the most important conflict of at least the last 300 years (with the Thirty Years War' which shattered it's way through 17th century Europe). The War de-railed Empires that still seemed strong, it altered the course of the 20th century from it's beginning. It changed the relationships of workers to their employers; it began the process of changing the role of women; put sex, drug, and the Charleston into the spotlight - I could go on (as an historian). Where is the work of Eliot that says "I noticed it"? On this, the most apposite I can be, I bring Zola's exclamation to the table: Eliot - "J'accuse". It seems to me, that with his choice of references and allusions, Eliot looked to, and brought the past to him. He did not, however, in this reader's opinion look to, or bring into the future any of that. Those are my further thoughts on this. :-) Morag : I'd be delighted. Meanwhile, you haven't said what you think about the passage I quoted from 'Little Gidding'.

Have you read 'The Four Quartets'? In 'The Waste Land', Eliot was drawing on cultural references to create a multi-layered work. You don't have to like it, but it certainly isn't true that he simply slapped down a lot of quotations and wrote a few linking passages. If you seriously doubt whether Eliot revised his work, try googling 'The Waste Land original manuscript image'. He cut and revised and rewrote. He also asked his friend Ezra Pound to edit the poem, resulting in about half being cut out. A facsimile of the original manuscript, together with transcriptions and notes, is available in book form: it runs to 184 pages. I've written comments on some of your poems. I think they are very good, but as a trained proofreader I am unable to stop myself pointing out tiny errors. Sorry. D I Harrison : Thank you very much for your reply, Morag. It is always interesting to get a perspective from someone like yourself, who clearly love's Eliot's work. And thoughtful and considering so that you have spent considerable time reading his poetry.

I cannot claim to have your knowledge of the subject, clearly not as I failed to pick up on the biblical references in 'The Chase'. However, I will continue to commit to some of my points. You are, of course, correct in pointing out the reference to Dante's 'Inferno' is one Eliot points out in the notes to this, and I was aware of it before I wrote the first comment. I had access to these notes because they are, helpfully, included in the Faber Paperback edition of 'Selected Poems', (1948). I believe this version contains much the same poems as the later edition, from the 60s. The simple fact of his acknowledging their attribution is, to me, not a big enough fig leaf for him to cover my problem with what he does. As a practising poet who hopes to improve, but having been described (many years ago now) as 'a good poet' by the Visiting Professor of English at the University of California at San Francisco, David Rees. He was a very good, if unheralded critic.

The man who first taught me some rules to abide by: 1) If you write something of which some is brilliant and other parts not More Is Not Better. 2) If you write something that is too long to point of bashing the reader over the head with boredom, then cjut out everything you've written up to the point you think this is. Next day, come back and find places to cut another third out.3) You don't get rid of what you've cut out. It'd likely that there will parts you can use elsewhere. 4) 'Cogito ergo sum' - A poem is in a constant state of being written as long as you can think.5) Be your own worst critic. My apologies for having gone about this at somw length, it was however necessary so that you would understand the agenda I have. Merely using references from far and wide and coming up with a few, or more, original parts to link them (or, indeed, as Eliot does quite a lot zaps off at a tangent where the reader is expected to change tack suddenly) does not, as far as I'm concerned, constitute poetry.

As far as I am concerned, plagiarism is plagiarism no matter what shiny new outfits you give it. To me, what Eliot did was use his intellectual and knowledge, nothing more. And, being someone who writes poetry I know first hand how difficult the task of writing is. I think Einstein said that "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration". I make no claims to be a genius, indeed far from it, but I believe it true nonetheless in whatever field you are. One of my continuing troubles with Eliot is that I can get no sense from his work that he has gone through this.For me, what Eliot has done is take a whole stack of references, of which he had cartloads and a prodigious knowledge of them. He also, I grant, had a magnificent intellect. In that sense, I believe, Eliot towered over his contemporaries. What he writes is, to me, simply an intellectual exercise. And to show you what I mean here I have undertaken the task of myself writing a poem which uses these 'cheats'.

I will post it both here, and in my published poems by tomorrow, and your task(if you choose to accept it) will be, at least firstly, to identify and attribute the references I use. Morag : Eliot quotes a lot from the work of other poets. I can understand that it can be disappointing to admire an image and then find it wasn't original, but I am surprised that it was such a shock in the case you quote. The Dante passage is given in the notes, which are always printed with The Waste Land. Eliot is often criticised for writing a poem so obscure that he had to provide it with notes - and the notes appear to assume that the reader is already familiar with Dante's Inferno. If s/he is, then by quoting a single line Eliot is able to link the crowds of commuters crossing London Bridge with the crowds of dead approaching Hell. I agree that the Choruses from the Rock are far from being Eliot's best work. However, they do not represent Eliot 'naked', without quotations. 'Waste and void.

And darkness on the face of the deep' is a quotation from Genesis 1:2, and 'In this land no man has hired us' is a quotation from the Matthew 20:7. I think the first line you quote is deliberately ugly, to reflect the ugliness he sees in the kind of life he describes, and the whole thing is flat and stilted because he is trying to imitate the Chorus in classical Greek plays. Here is a section from 'Little Gidding'. I can't spot any quotations in it, though I could be wrong. Why not take this as an example of 'naked' Eliot? The dove descending breaks the air With flame of incandescent terror Of which the tongues declare The one discharge from sin and error. The only hope, or else despair Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre— To be redeemed from fire by fire. Who then devised the torment? Love. Love is the unfamiliar Name Behind the hands that wove The intolerable shirt of flame Which human power cannot remove. We only live, only suspire Consumed by either fire or fire.

Personally, I loved Eliot's poetry even when I understood very little of what he was talking about, and I love it all the more now. Every time I read it I find something new. D I Harrison : Oh, heresies of heresies! While this poem is one of my favourites of Eliot's, and it is a very good example of his style. I have to say, after reading Eliot's 'Selected Poems' (the Faber paperback edition), in the beginning the more I read the more I was liking them. But in order to try and understand them I was reading each poem 4,5, and 6 times. This, of course,made me quite conversive with a number of his poems, and I checked his references (and part of his poems that I didn't follow both with his own notes and references I found with internet searches). The first thing, and it isn't not obvious and I wonder if anyone has picked this up, 'The Hollow Men' was considered by Eliot, from his own notes, to be the poem he wrote most directly connected with World War 1.

500 bonus points to anyone who, hand on heart, say that they could pick that up from the poem. Because I couldn't, even after reading this more 6 times in the 3 month period when I was immersing my in an ocean of Eliot. Secondly, many of the what are called 'the references' of Eliot to works elsewhere, such as Dante, are in fact something slightly more than simply references. I'm afraid old Eliot was a little bit of a plagiarist when it comes down to it. He did not just make reference, he took whole passages, mixed up the wording a bit, and stuck them in his work. I cannot be sure whether he has done this in this particular work, once I realised he was doing it I became uninterested in where he did it after that point. Here, however, is (to me) the worst example. Worst because, until I'd found out, it had been my favourite image from Eliot. I found it so moving, and full of compressed humanity.

Just two little lines and these are they: From 'The Wasteland': "A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many." (LL. 62-63 'The Burial of the Dead') And Dante's 'Inferno'?: '...after it there came so long a train Of people, that I ne'er would have believed That ever Death so many had undone.' (LL. 52 – 57) I'm very much afraid, that's case proved to me. There are other examples throughout his work, but that being to me the most glaring is the one that stands out. Thirdly, when I read 'The Chase' from Choruses in ,The Rock', the last in my collection, I discovered Eliot when he was, as it were, naked. Without all the dressing up in other writers words an imagery. This is a representative portion: 'Chorus: What does the world say, does the whole world stray in high powered cars on a by-pass way? Voice of the Unemployed (more faintly): In this land No man has hired us... Chorus: Waste and void. Waste and void.

And darkness on the face of the deep. Has the Church failed mankind, or has mankind failed the Church? When the Church is no longer regarded, not even opposed, and men have forgotten All gods except Usury, Lust and Power.' Personally, I find that to be tired, full of cliche, bland and boring imagery and appalling rhymes. 'say, stray, and way'? The unemployed saying no-one's hired them, well forgive me if I'm stating the bleedin' obvious but (to coin a phrase) "they would say that, wouldn't they?". It is hardly earth-shattering as a pointed reflection of the state of workmen when there are millions unemployed. I could go on, and on. So I'll stop. For these reasons, amongst others, Eliot would not make near the Top 20 Most Important British Poets Ever; nor would he be near the top of any list I could make, personally, of Great British Poets of the 20th century. Not when we have Owen, Yeats, Auden, Plath and Larkin to be accounted for. If anyone gets to the end of this, I would be very interested in your thoughts.

asthewindbehaves : I just love every haunting word of this beautiful poem. Ahhhhhhhhh Eliot You have outdone yourself, sir. GriffGriffin : I grow old, I grow old.... I find that this poem reminds me that as a youth I was filled with wondrous hope and possibility, and as I age, I only see the futility of all things. Ezra Pounder : TS Eliot, I thank you for creating such masterful work. Inspiration drips from every carefully crafted line. Bravo. Kind Regards Ezra Morag : If that's how you feel about the re-election of a man who didn't write off 47% of Americans as worthless scroungers, this is certainly the right poem for you. Susan Craig : A fitting poem for a morning when we wake to find our nation has chosen to slide into mediocrity rather than work for recovery. : This poem had a big influence on me when I first read it in college. It is a very accurate description of the hopelessness that fills those who have passed on to the spiritual world. We the living need to fill the hollow feeling within us with a life of goodness and living for the sake of others.

Life is short and we shouldn't have any regrets for what we have done or not done. The Hollow Men The Hollow Men The Hollow Men Introduction In A Nutshell "The Hollow Men" is a huge downer of a poem. In this way, it fits into the general arc of T.S. Eliot 's career, which can be divided into Huge Downers and Glorious Uppers. For example, The Waste Land: Huge Downer; Four Quartets: Glorious Upper. Clearly we're over-simplifying. But Eliot was going through a rough patch when he wrote "The Hollow Men." His marriage to Vivienne Eliot had collapsed, and some scholars think she was having an affair with the British philosopher Bertrand Russell . Also, Eliot was still moving toward a religious conversion to Anglicanism that did not arrive until 1927. Several of the poems that Eliot wrote before this conversion concern the total failure of religious hope and love (see, for example, " The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock ").

"The Hollow Men" begins with a quote from Joseph Conrad's famous novella Heart of Darkness , the story of a colonial Englishman who goes power-hungry in Africa, and things only go downhill from there. Eliot's poem is about a group of scarecrow-like individuals who exist in a state between life and death and suffer from a serious case of moral paralysis. They are forever trapped on the banks of the River Styx , the ancient Greek symbol for the dividing line between life and death. Some critics consider "The Hollow Men" to be a companion piece for Eliot's most famous work, The Waste Land, another poem about moral paralysis. Eliot's poems from the 1920s are often read in a political context as a reaction to the aftermath of World War I . Eliot was preoccupied with the idea of a European literary and ethical tradition, and he saw this tradition fragmenting everywhere around him. He turned, as he often did, to his favorite Italian poet Dante Alighieri , whose Inferno was inspiration for this poem. "The Hollow Men" was published in 1925, three years after The Waste Land. In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature .

The Hollow Men Analysis T.S. Eliot : Summary Explanation Meaning Overview Essay Writing Critique Peer Review Literary Criticism Synopsis Online Education Yes! It's true. Online College Education is now free! ||| Analysis | Critique | Overview Below ||| .: :. It\'s all about emptiness and entropy. There is no apocalypse, merely a winding down of all of the \"systems\" that humanity has built (which many commentators astutely reference). I know Eliot did not convert to the Anglican church until 1927, and this poem pre-dates that; but there seem to be allusions to some of the dead being in The Other Kingdom. Maybe it\'s Eliot coming to gripsw with spirituality and emptiness. I have re-read the poem, and used it in classes that I teach, but I am still ambivalent about reading to much autobiography into the work. | Posted on 2012-11-05 | by a guest .: :.

This poem is a clearly a masterpiece, I don\'t see myself as a master of poetry (not to imply that others do) and when it comes to masterpieces of this poem\'s caliber you can\'t box them into one category such as; \'The Lost Generation of The Great War\', \'T.S. Eliot\'s path to religion\' or indeed one so broad as \'The representation of society\' aimlessness\', no, with a poem such as this you must consider all of these. The most famous lines of the poem come with the last stanza and for a reason too. ; \"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.\" I remember reading those lines when I was very young and barely understanding them, but I still felt Eliot\'s passion and anguish, I still knew that there was emotion to be felt even if I wasn\'t sure why and that, to me, is what constitutes truly masterful poetry.

Now that I am older (15) I acknowledge the reference it\'s making to Guy Fawkes, the Gunpowder Plot didn\'t end with the powerful, triumphant, satisfying bang that was intended, it ended with the whimper of a hero as he was hung, drawn and quartered. I believe this is also Eliot\'s beliefs on war, that bombs and guns and death is not glorious but futile and ultimately sad. I don\'t know if this makes any sense but it\'s my view, thanks for reading if you did. My regards from Scotland. | Posted on 2012-08-21 | by a guest .: :. Critical analysis is a tricky business. My students invariably profess their frustration (or illusory success) in searching for the \"hidden meaning\" in poems. The initial post on this site contains a kernel of critical truth, echoed by Frost when he was asked if his intent in writing \"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening\" contained a death-metaphor in the refrain: \"The woods are lovely, dark and deep / But I have promises to keep / And miles to go before I sleep . .

.\" In reply Frost said: \"What do YOU think it means?\" So how to we dig into \"The Hollow Men\"? There are some certainties; Eliot was an expatriot, believing that there could be no \"American\" poetry, since no tradition existed in America, no background of American literary works from which the poet could draw upon. William Carlos Williams denied Eliot\'s claim and proved him wrong, but that\'s another tale in itself. Eliot\'s philosophy is clearly demonstrated in \"The Hollow Men,\" as well as many of his other poems from \"Prufrock\" to \"Sweeny.\" Not only does he draw extensively from the Western Canon--all the way back to Homer--but also from Hindu texts. Eliot is known as an American poet, the ring of American Modernism we so richly enjoy from reading the poetry of Wallace Stevens and Williams is not there. By birth Eliot (and Pound) are American, but their poems are less American than the writings of James Joyce, their contemporary.

For me, the allusion to \"hollowness\" rings of the displaced Eliot referred to in biographical references about his marriage, religious life, and his desperate attempts to become British, which included his speaking with an English accent in his later years. \"The Hollow Men\" is a complex masterpiece, about which volumes of criticism have been written. This comment should not be taken as a critical mini-essay, but a more concrete observation based on some historical / biographical facts that aren\'t open to analysis. Dr. J. Bennett Jasmin | Posted on 2012-07-27 | by a guest .: :. Its about whatever YOU want it to be about. All of the above and less. What do you want it to be about? | Posted on 2012-06-27 | by a guest .: :. This is a great poem that English learners really need to value.

TS Elliot wrote this poem during World War I and something that most comments dont say is that the poet himself is a hollow man.We can conclude this from the first line (\"WE are the hollow men).Even though it is not clearly said in the poem but a hollow man can be defined as a man who: -has no vision/purpose in life -lacks depth/substance or faith -prays blasphemous and corrupted prayer -etc However,it is critical to notice that TS Elliot does not judge hollow men. He does not refer to them as good or bad because hollow men are not \"extreme\". They are not necessarily bad people but they are not necessarily good either. If you think about it, most of us are hollow men( You dont have to believe it). An occasional act of goodness does not make you a goood person. The opposite is also very true. Hollow men are not \"violent souls\" but they are not perfect either.

I would like to bring your attention to Stanza3 (section1):/Shape without form,shade without colour.../ 2 figures of speech are used here, both of which have a contadictory effect: Paradox (\"shape without form) as well as Oxymoron(\"paralysed force\"). This stanza embodies a very important idea for the poem and the figures of speech here are used to reflect the futility or uselessness of hollow men. It simply shows that hollow men half-exist just like a shape cannot exist without a form neither can there be a gesture without motion(I mean you cant lift your arm without moving it:try it... LOL) Thanks for reading my comment! I hope it helps a great deal! Ruthyy -17 | Posted on 2012-04-28 | by a guest .: :. This is a great poem that English learners really need to value.

TS Elliot wrote this poem during World War I and something that most comments dont say is that the poet himself is a hollow man.We can conclude this from the first line (\"WE are the hollow men).Even though it is not clearly said in the poem but a hollow man can be defined as a man who: -has no vision/purpose in life -lacks depth/substance or faith -prays blasphemous and corrupted prayer -etc However,it is critical to notice that TS Elliot does not judge hollow men. He does not refer to them as good or bad because hollow men are not \"extreme\". They are not necessarily bad people but they are not necessarily good either. If you think about it, most of us are hollow men( You dont have to believe it). An occasional act of goodness does not make you a goood person. The opposite is also very true. Hollow men are not \"violent souls\" but they are not perfect either.

I would like to bring your attention to Stanza3 (section1):/Shape without form,shade without colour.../ 2 figures of speech are used here, both of which have a contadictory effect: Paradox (\"shape without form) as well as Oxymoron(\"paralysed force\"). This stanza embodies a very important idea for the poem and the figures of speech here are used to reflect the futility or uselessness of hollow men. It simply shows that hollow men half-exist just like a shape cannot exist without a form neither can there be a gesture without motion(I mean you cant lift your arm without moving it:try it... LOL) Thanks for reading my comment! I hope it helps a great deal! Ruthyy -17 | Posted on 2012-04-28 | by a guest .: :. it must be about the scheme between president bush, obama, osama, and the vietnam war. everything in the poem refers to these subjects! | Posted on 2012-03-21 | by a guest .: :. Dear all, I am trying to understand this poem for a literature exam.

Some of your comments were very helpful, many thanks. Here is what I know in return. This poem can be seen as an extension to Eliots \"The Waste Land.\" it is about the aftermath of WW1 (not world war two, this poem was written in 1925!!!) and about the men who survived - the hollow men. They are full of traumatic experiences but feel hollow at the same time, like they have no purpose on earth. They wander. It is also about how the wester world changed after the war: the aftermath. The dead land, he writes, the cactus land. Life is almost barren, as a whole generation of young men has been wiped out. There is sadness and loneliness present in the poem, in the western world. There is no talking; the aftermath of the war casts a shadow between people, the shadow: something between life and death perhaps. The poem certainly feels like death, it is not glorious, the last lines of the poem remind one of the waste land again: the world will end, not with a (glorious, fulfilling, thrilling) bang, but with a (lousy, sad, speechless, powerless) whimper. I do hope this makes sense. Cheers from Scotland.

| Posted on 2012-01-08 | by a guest .: :. I feel like this poem could indeed be referencing the Great War, but I also see it as \"a test of faith\". Two years after this poem was published, Eliot converted religions. Maybe he was displaying the judgement the \"eyes\", or the church, put upon people who converted. The kingdom only opens its doors for certain people. It is the epitome of the Modernist Movement, that society was fragile and broken. I recall one author saying in our era \"We all know God is dead\". Maybe this is what Eliot feared, or at least observed starting to occur. | Posted on 2011-11-28 | by a guest .: :. This poem is about the survivors of World War 1. They are full of guilt and cant understand why they were the ones who were picked to live. They are \"Hollow Men\" because they have seen a lot and can\'t get over what happened. Knowing they can\'t change anything that happened. This poem is showing the feelings of the survivors.

| Posted on 2011-10-26 | by a guest .: :. Difficult to interpret ... but after reading it a couple of times and reading sdome of the other critiques, a few impressions have been made, whether correct or not. I see it as an appeal to the dead, probably of WWI, from those that survived. Most survivors feel guilty and have difficulty understand-ing why they survived - \"Remember us -- if at all -- , not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men. The stuffed men\" - the military burial sites - \"crossed staves in a field\"; the abondoned spouses and lovers at gravesites: \"Lips that would kiss Form prayers to broken stone\"; the time of attack \"around\" the barbed wire - \"Here we go round the prickly pear At five o\'clock in the morning.\"; the lives of those that have fallen from lust to ejaculation to pregnancy to birth to life to death - \"Between the desire And the spasm Between the potency And the existence Between the essence And the descent; and finally the uselessness of the deaths \"the wimper\". Perhaps too simplistic? I don\'t really know.

| Posted on 2011-08-01 | by a guest .: :. Lots of meanings in here. Lately I am obsessed with the shadow that falls between desire and creation, motion and act, etc. That shadow is full of dead projects, dreams and all what one wants to do, sometimes one knows that it is what has to be done, but still fails to accomplish. I am in the long bend of my forties now, probably the most shady decade of my life | Posted on 2011-07-24 | by a guest .: :. We are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men. The first verses of the poem indicate a contradiction that surprises us. Hollow means “having a cavity within”, implying the idea of `emptiness´. It also has a figurative meaning, that of “lacking real value or significance”. Stuffed, however, means “filled by packing things in (to the point of overflowing)”. So now we appreciate the difference between the ideas of lack and abundance. But what do the hollow/stuffed men lack and what do they have in great quantities?

If we look at line 4 (Headpiece filled with straw) we’ll notice the author highlights this part of the body as the one `stuffed´, and considering the headpiece as the representation of the mind, we’ll assume that these two verses have a symbolic, figurative meaning: the hollow men –who the speaker belongs to (We are)- are fulfilled with absurd, non-sense ideas and thoughts, causing them to be –in a contradiction in terms- empty and futile (let’s look back at the second meaning of hollow). | Posted on 2011-06-27 | by a guest .: :. To the person who wrote this "nobody is getting this right . . . its not deep at all, this is just a weird poem. i dont even think eliot knew what he was saying when he wrote this, pretty much anyone can write something using big words and call it poetry. look at The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams, for example, the guy wrote about a wheelbarrow and chickens and its now a famous poem.

i think im going to write a 3 line poem about my fingernail and try to publish it :) \\” you’re not funny, and there is no ‘right’ interpretation of a poem. if you don’t see a deeper meaning then good for you, but other people who enjoy reading poetry might. just because your miniscule brain doesn’t understand symbolic meanins and can’t see past what’s written doesn’t mean that everyone else is as simple minded as you. | Posted on 2011-06-12 | by a guest .: :. To the person who wrote this \"nobody is getting this right . . . its not deep at all, this is just a weird poem. i dont even think eliot knew what he was saying when he wrote this, pretty much anyone can write something using big words and call it poetry. look at The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams, for example, the guy wrote about a wheelbarrow and chickens and its now a famous poem. i think im going to write a 3 line poem about my fingernail and try to publish it :) \" You clearly know nothing about the modernist period, or about Poetry at all!

The metaphors used in this poetry, as well as the use of enjambment, and stream of consciousness are all techniques of modernist poetry. Now interpret the poem however you like, whether it be as biblical reference, WW1, The meaningless lives of the modernist society or any other way you see fit, which is part of the enjoyment of poetry is interpreting the language yourself, but never put someone else\'s poetry or works down. If you don\'t like it then don\'t read it, leave this a place for those who enjoy poetry and interpreting poetry to share their opinions. Thankyou! | Posted on 2011-05-18 | by a guest .: :. {why does everyone keep calling it ww1? it was the great war not ww1 dipshits} To the person who wrote the above comment ^ I come from Australia, in our nation it is known as World War 1, There are different titles in different countries Live a little, take your head out of your arse... your not the only person on the earth.. | Posted on 2011-05-14 | by a guest .: :.

The story behind this poem is that his wife had been cheating on him and finally left him for another man. He was very deeply depressed at the time of this writing about life in general but hope springs eternal...a few months later he married his housekeeper. He was very happy with her sincere and simple caring for him, much like Einstein this great genius married a simpleminded, bighearted, caretaker, and was well cared for to the end of his life--this is true-- check it out! | Posted on 2011-04-30 | by a guest .: :. I believe that with the advancement of weapons of mass destruction... the poem means so much more than that of faith.... I think that the meaning now points to the creators and users of methods of death.... heads of state, the CIA, etc. It\'s haunting... those quiet shadows... waiting... A great and predictive poem regarding the human race. | Posted on 2011-03-15 | by a guest .: :. \"The Hollow Men\" is an extension on Eliot\'s \"The Waste Land\".

Many of his other references have been listed above, but I feel that only one person on this thread actually got the meaning of this poem. Eliot wrote this poem in 1925 (though it was published in parts, part 1, part 2, parts 3&4, and then the whole poem was published together with the added ending). Eliot had been an atheist, but in 1921 started visiting churches and joined the Church of England in 1927. This poem talks about a faith journey. Not necessarily the choice T.S. Eliot was making, but of thoughts he had had previously regarding living a life without faith, and the final destination of a person who lives such a life. The poem begins referencing \"Heart of Darkness\" and Guy Fox Day. The first section is introducing the Hollow Men; men who are on their deathbed looking towards the afterlife, hollow because of their lack of faith but stuffed in their own self indulgent lifestyle. The next three sections are Heaven, Hell and Purgatory respectively.

The Hollow Men are considering their Godless lives and realizing that the most likely place for them would be purgatory, though none of the kingdoms of death truly appeal to them. Heaven to them would be riddled with guilt, as looking into the eyes of God would overwhelm them with that guilt. Hell is not an optimistic outcome for anyone; however they see it as their best choice as they are already living without God. Their lives that they have spend mulling over their options but never taking any action (like Prince Hamlet) is what they believe purgatory to be. The repetition of the children’s songs suggests that the future of Christianity lies in the hands of children. The star (of Bethlehem) is fading and when the children have to belief, it will be out. Hence \"this is the way the world ends\". With children. The recurring theme in the poem is doubt. The Hollow Men think over the prospect of faith and Christianity every day; however their doubt stands in their way. Between the ____ and the ___ falls the shadow. The hollow men like the idea of God, but their reality is without him because of the shadow of doubt coming between them and God. This is continued until the end of the poem.

“For Thine is the kingdom” references the end of the Lords prayer suggesting that the end of the poem parallels the end of Christianity. | Posted on 2011-03-10 | by a guest .: :. The empty, pointless bodies, the \"hollow men\" wander the earth desperately \"groping together\" to avoid death. But what they don\'t realize is death is not something outside of the earth, but life as we know it is in fact everything we try so achingly to avoid as we pass the time in \"death\'s other kingdom.\" The second to last stanza we, the readers stumble and grasp to hold on, explaining it as we thought we could before, \"thine is...\" until we finally understand, and make it truth. Convince ourselves of the new truth by saying it 3 times. Because as long as we can hold onto something, new or old. We live, we live to avoid death. Interpretations are open. It no longer belongs to Elliot due to the fact that you read it. No interpretations are incorrect as long as you use the present elements.

That said, great work is work in which the difference between what the author wanted to say and the reader understood is minimal. | Posted on 2011-03-08 | by a guest .: :. why does everyone keep calling it ww1? it was the great war not ww1 dipshits | Posted on 2011-02-28 | by a guest .: :. In this poem, Eliot\'s deep sense of utter despair and conviction of the human race\'s worthlessness is achingly apparent. He implies that it would not be justly harsh if the humans at that time were remembered as anything more than scarecrows: \"Remember us - if at all - not as lost violent souls, but only as the Hollow men, The stuffed men\" etc etc... His emotions, and interpretations of the world around him seem to climax towards the end of the poem, where strangled prayer and deranged nursery rhymes leave a sense of despairing frenzy..

finaly, his lines crumble, and all that is left is a repetitive: \"this is the way the world ens, this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper\" sophie rose, 13 | Posted on 2011-01-30 | by a guest .: :. In this poem, Eliot\'s deep sense of utter despair and conviction of the human race\'s worthlessness is achingly apparent. He implies that it would not be justly harsh if the humans at that time were remembered as anything more than scarecrows: \"Remember us - if at all - not as lost violent souls, but only as the Hollow men, The stuffed men\" etc etc... His emotions, and interpretations of the world around him seem to climax towards the end of the poem, where strangled prayer and deranged nursery rhymes leave a sense of despairing frenzy..

finaly, his lines crumble, and all that is left is a repetitive: \"this is the way the world ens, this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper\" sophie rose, 13 | Posted on 2011-01-29 | by a guest .: :. I dislike most modern poetry. I dislike all poetry that does not clearly say something. | Posted on 2011-01-26 | by a guest .: :. Without knowing anything about Elliot\'s particular circumstances--the themes I am most vividly left with are those of impermanence and mediocrity, and the interplay of these. It reminds me of Ecclesiastes: \"Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh\" Things never end well, our ephemeral existence sets the stage for all else to be (in many ways) doomed from the start, and therefore is robbed of a certain degree of significance and vitality.

Its not just a lifetime that ends disappointingly, or \"with a whimper,\" its the countless acts that come along the way. \"Between the idea Falls the Shadow\" He goes on like this for some time. It seems to me he is referencing something lost, an ideal unfulfilled. The fact that he calls it \"the shadow\" indicates that inevitable death is intrinsically tied to the inability to fully and gloriously carry something out. The hollow men are constantly fearing their own death, yet they are never really alive. Perhaps they are robbed of substantial existences only BECAUSE they spend them afraid of their finite nature, I\'m not sure. | Posted on 2011-01-13 | by a guest .: :. The poem is about how living people are meaningless. \"Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass or rats\' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar.\" Yet, the dead will remember us as something BUT nothing, simply there.

\"Those who have crossed With direct eyes, to death\'s other Kingdom Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men The stuffed men.\" There is no indication that the dead have become more aware or powerful than living, notice the --if at all-- part, it is simply a third person view of living people. Another point that living people have no hope in life, no real permanent prospect to look forward to, except death. Maybe to another existence, as men fear to be forgotten. \"Of death\'s twilight kingdom The hope only Of empty men.\" Also showing that men fear the unknown of death and the process of passing through is a lonely, desolate one \"In death\'s other kingdom Waking alone At the hour when we are Trembling with tenderness\" And of course, the infamous ending, stating that we simply fade from existence, we were never truly anything, and once we are gone we never will be anything. \"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.\" | Posted on 2010-12-11 | by a guest .: :.

The horror experienced by this poem has to do with the discomfort we feel at the notion that we can\'t even rely on the idea of a monumental and dramatic exit from the world. This runs contrary to disaster epic films that Hollywood offers with bang up finishes. Even if we are facing destruction, at least we\'ll go out with a bang- this poem, and the film On the Beach (1959) present the opposite outcome. Ultimately, the majority of human deaths are monumental whimpers- and that is truly terrifying. This is also linked to the fear of being forgotten once one dies. In Toni Morrison\'s Beloved, one can\'t forget the haunting description of how Beloved simply disappears, never to be remembered. Again, non-existence is by far more fearful to humans than a tortured existence. | Posted on 2010-07-30 | by a guest .: :. Advice from one who has taught this poem-read it aloud three times and try to sing it once (especially the prickly-pear variation on the mulberry-bush). Eliot uses language like a jazz-musician, not surprising for a poet of the 20's. He greatly admired J.

Conrad's Heart of Darkness and recognized in the tragic fate of "Mistah Kurtz" or the violent end of the Ol' Guy (Guy Fawkes Day-the English cross between Halloween and the 4th of July) the alternative to his own lost generation, stripped of their rags and tatters of faith by the blasts of World War I. Like spiritual scarecrows with their staves and disguises, his fellow hollowmen live in a purgatory with lifeless stone images where prayers are only mumbled words empty of meaning. Between the allsuions (fixed) and the feelings (personal) come the meanings (fluid). When pain awakes you at 3 o'clock you can pray or write a poem-both ultimately will go unanswered in a world that shares only its silence. | Posted on 2010-07-19 | by a guest .: :. I found this poem to be very interesting to me. Several times it referenced the story "Sir Seven and the Big Worm" | Posted on 2010-05-17 | by a guest .: :. Verse V is all about the shadow of death descending upon the world.

"Here we go round the prickley pear" parallels the old children's game "Here we go round the mulbury bush" with it's "ashes to ashes, we all fall down"--a clear reference to the bubonic plague of the fourteenth century that wiped out two-thirds of European population. Interestingly, WWI destroyed an entire generation of European young men, not to mention civilian casualaties--all brought on by the crazy, rationalistic war mongerers. | Posted on 2010-05-05 | by a guest .: :. I'd like to make a correction to the 2010-05-03's post. This poem is a reflection on WWI not II. Written in 1925 Eliot didn't even know that WWII was going to be taking place. For more incite on this poem I would direct one to the following website: x | Posted on 2010-05-05 | by a guest .: :.

This poem may be referencing WW2 but if anyone was willing to do a smidgen of research they would soon find out that not only does this poem reference Shakespeare, the obvious Joseph Conrad, Dante's inferno, Plato, and in one line God; one might see that a major portion of the poem is referencing the Gunpowder Plot on November 5. In 1605, a band of men planned to kill King James I by blowing up Parliament. The man selected to light the fuse was Guy Fawkes. The plan ultimately failed and Guy Fawkes was hanged. But in England today, on November 5 huge bonfires are lit and straw-filled effigies of Fawkes are placed in the fire ("stuffed men"). Also, children carry a "guy" and pretend to be beggars asking for "a penny for the guy" to buy fireworks. This reference has an effect of emphasizing the theme of this poem which is humanity's loss of will and faith. So not really referencing to trench warfare...so i think you're the idiot | Posted on 2010-05-03 | by a guest .: :.

Dear Sweetheart, I found this great poetry analysis site that we can use to find some great information on our favorite poems. I wish we could be with each other, but my mom insists I go to college. We can still Skype on the weekends, just make sure your parents aren't home. Love you, The Hollow Men - 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 with a whimper. Influence: Received and Gained The Heart of Darkness was written and said to be referenced to several pieces of works in literature, but the first two lines in the poem directly allude to Kurtz from Heart of Darkness and to Guy Fawkes, an attempted arsonist of the English house of Parliament, "Mistah Kurtz - he dead" and "A penny for the Old Guy" respectively. The entire poem resembles that exactly of Kurtz, Marlow, and the other characters portrayed in the novella. It states much of the same themes and messages of the book, and the question of moral seems to be the common theme among the film, book, and the poem.

The poem is timeless and is still referenced to today's society of men working in the corporate industry. In a scene in Apocalypse Now, Kurtz is reading Eliot's work towards the end of the film along with his other books ranging from the Holy Bible to The Golden Bough. Besides the adaptation from the novel, Coppola uses the idea of incorporating the poem into the film not just as a theme, but using the physical prose as a line in the film. This shows not only the importance of the poem to the film, but the personal level of relatability that was able to be had on Colonel Kurtz from the film. Indeed, the poem is about his character portrayed from the version of the book. "Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion" "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 with a whimper" T.S. Eliot An American-born English poet and writer that was immensely influential in 20th century English literature. Eliot is best known for his poems entitled The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Gerontonin, and The Waste Land.

He was part of the modernist movement of other poets and authors during that time, and in 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. A couple of verses from The Hollow Men were quoted in Apocalypse Now and the poem's most famous line, "Not with a bang, but with a whimper," has become a well-known passage, and referenced in media and culture quite frequently. "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot Poem animation - YouTube "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot Poem animation Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Nov 9, 2011 Heres a virtual movie of the celebrated reader of poetry Robert Speaight reading definitively "The Hollow Men" by the great T.S. Eliot. The Hollow Men (1925) is a major poem by T. S. Eliot.

Its themes are, like many of Eliot's poems, overlapping and fragmentary, but it is recognised 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 Eliot may have been having an affair with Bertrand Russell. The poem is divided into five parts and consists of 98 lines. 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:[2] 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. Robert Speaight (1904 -- 1976) was a British actor and writer, and the brother of George Speaight the puppeteer. He was an early performer (from 1927) in radio plays. He came to prominence as Becket in the first production of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral. He went on to Shakespearean roles, and to direct. He also wrote criticism and essays, works on the theatre and biography. He was a Roman Catholic convert, and biographer of Hilaire Belloc and Eric Gill.

Kind Regards All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2011 Category Analysis of "The Hollow Men" Analysis of "The Hollow Men" "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" One of T.S. Eliot's most remarkable works is undoubtedly "The Hollow Men." At the time Eliot wrote this poem the post-war world was suffering and he began to explore new religious beliefs. Spirituality is an underlying theme that occurs throughout the poem. By simply reading this it seems that the poem is extremely vague, yet it is that vagueness and impalpability that creates complexity. The poem is full of several paradoxes, which include "We are the hollow men, We are the stuffed men", "Shape without form", "Shade without color", and "Paralyzed force, gesture without motion." Eliot uses a great amount of alliteration. Some examples throughout the poem are "prickly pear", "death's dream", "trembling with tenderness", and "...cost, crowskin, crossed ..." One of the themes is spirituality. Eliot suggests that we have to be strong spiritually because our life in this world is not permanent.

We eventually make it to the afterlife or "death's other Kingdom." There are two different sides of our eternity and that depends on who you are. We are either the "stuffed men" who are strong and full of faith; or we are the "hollow men" who lack confidence in faith. There are two different "kingdoms", the stuffed men move on to "death's dream kingdom"; while the hollow men are left to go to "death's other kingdom." This kingdom of the hollow men is this dead land. The land is symbolic for the post-war world. This land is stagnant and like a delusion. This land is hopeless, which was exactly Eliot's view of his desolate world. These hollow men were fully responsible for what they did, because of their lack of faith and they were left to suffer. "The eyes" refers to the positive and good people or the stuffed men. In this empty land "the eyes are not here, there are no eyes here." These people fulfilled their duty to their faith and the deserve their multifoliate rose (symbolic for paradise.) In the poem the hollow men "avoid speech" because they are now meaningless. They are left like this just for the sake of existence.

Eliot then discusses how life is long and includes desire. And the desires in your life can be responsible for your future. Eliot describes how you are accountable for whatever you do, and your fate (the two different kingdoms) is dependent on your choices in life. Eliot concludes the poem by saying that more and more people are losing their faith and making the wrong choices in life. The existence of those stuffed men is coming to an end and can result in the end of the world; the world will become that dead land. That is why we must restrain from these hollow lives and lead more meaningful lives. "This is the way the world ends." Like the desolate land the end will be meaningless, "This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but with a whimper."

Question: Which famous poet wrote the line 'we are the hollow men'?
Answer: T. S. ELIOT