The Hollow Men - T.S. Eliot
A Dark Reflection on Spiritual Emptiness and the Edge of Despair
EPIGRAPH
“Mistah Kurtz—he dead.”
A penny for the Old Guy
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
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
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
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.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom.
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the—
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.
First published in 1925, “The Hollow Men” expands upon many of T.S. Eliot’s recurring themes: spiritual desolation, paralysis of will, and the difficulty of genuine human connection in the modern world. From the opening lines, Eliot juxtaposes the “hollow” and “stuffed” imagery, indicating people who lack both deep conviction and emotional substance. This symbolic emptiness, underscored by references to dead land and fading stars, exposes the poem’s stark emotional landscape.
Eliot references various cultural and literary sources, including Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (“Mistah Kurtz—he dead”) and the traditional English “Guy Fawkes” figure (“A penny for the Old Guy”). These allusions reinforce the notion of moral and cultural collapse. The men in the poem exist in a barren limbo, evading true spiritual reckoning while dreading the “eyes” associated with enlightenment or divine judgment.
Presented in five sections, “The Hollow Men” features fragmented rituals and broken prayers, culminating in the famous conclusion: “This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.” Eliot prophesies not an apocalyptic spectacle but a slow, disheartening descent into meaninglessness. The “Shadow” that repeatedly falls between idea and action captures the gulf between intention and outcome, demonstrating a collective failure of resolve.
Formally, the poem’s abrupt line breaks, refrains, and space on the page embody this sense of fragmentation. Rhythmically, it vacillates between soft incantatory cadences and sharp, broken passages—mirroring the “hollow” condition Eliot describes. Ultimately, “The Hollow Men” stands as a bleak meditation on a spiritually sterile epoch, a portrayal of post-World War I moral exhaustion that still resonates as an emblem of modern alienation.
Key points
1. Eliot depicts a soul-sick society bereft of faith or moral direction.
2. Repetition and fragmentation in form underscore the theme of disunity.
3. Allusions to cultural figures (Kurtz, Guy Fawkes) enrich the poem’s commentary on spiritual failure.
4. The poem’s final lines illustrate a muted, anticlimactic end—despair without catharsis.
