The Hollow Men Analysis

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.

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We are reading this for extra credit in our english class and dont understand it at all...i am 3,769 years old so im pretty wise but this is just completely pointless and i was ALIVE when he wrote this "hollow" poem

| Posted on 2010-02-06 | by a guest

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I am a relative novice with this writer. Still, it seems to me that discussion of the various literary allusions in "The Hollow Men" is interesting, but does not really lead to understanding of Eliot's meaning.
This poem seems to repeat a common theme in Eliot's writing. Specifically, that the dead understand more than the living.
Consider this famous quote from "Little Gidding":
"And what the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living."
We tend to think of the dead as powerless and the living as vital. By contrast, Eliot seems to be saying that it is only the dead who truly understand things. Those who have crossed over the "tumid river" to the afterlife ("death's dream kingdom") are not particularly impressed with the petty things the living think and do.
The harsh "eyes I dare not meet in dreams" have no power in the afterlife. They are as powerless as "sunlight on a broken column."
There is a shadow on all the things we living people try to do, because there is a gap between our intentions and our actual performance. This is because the living do not truly understand anything.
I'm sure there is more, but this seems to be the main point Eliot makes in "The Hollow Men."

| Posted on 2010-01-23 | by a guest

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I read this poem as Eliot's expression of disillusionment with man's world. He is concerned with the spiritual emptiness in modern life.
He describes the hollow men as if they are in worship, juxtaposing references to religion with children's games, like in the 2nd epigraph about Fawkes. The hollow stuffed men (like scarecrows) are trying to pray, but unable to comunicate with God as the prayers are "meaningless/As wind in dry grass" They are suffering from spiritual paralysis. They are not dead, but are unable to do anything, a "paralyzed force, gesture without motion"
Unlike the inhabitants of "death's other Kingdom" who looked 'with direct eyes", the hollow men are unable to look at the reality of their existance because of fear or indiference.
The Hollow men also wear disguises such as a scarcrow-rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves.

| Posted on 2010-01-19 | by a guest

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their is one dude or girl that said this poem has "no meaning except for the authors". you are an idiot, look up the history of T.S. Eliot before you start writing. He wrote this after WW1 when their was a lot of strong feeling about the war. this poems about the soilders who came back after the war and their feelings, and no T.S. Eliot did not fight in the war. the soilders say "remember us-- if at all-- not as lost violent souls, but only as the hollow men the stuffed men". these soilders served in the war and want to be remembered not for violence or malicious acts but as soilders. soilders go through so much hazing they are often emotionless hence the "hollow" and yes "stuffed" because they have phisical mass.
"in deaths dream kingdom" what would you expect to see? lots of people dying im sure, oh wait in WW1 there were trences and up to 30,000 people died in one day no wonder the soiders want to wear "delibrate disguises rat's coat, crow skin, and crossed staves in a feild behaving as the wind behaves". their trying to save their own lives and hiding from death, the enemy.
the only confusing part should be "hear we go around the prickly pear" and thats is essentualy hear we go around the mulbery bush the mulbery bush the mulbery bush... clasic pagan song to fertility. why prickly pear? their in the desert "cactus land"= desert. when singing the song you curcle the prickly tree. essentualy they're going round the cactus that provides water in the desert, and the prickly pear has gone through hardship just like the soilder there is a feeling of understanding between them.
"between the _ and the _ falls the shadow" its essentualy saying these two things are oppisit and humans fall somewere between both of them.
you are right though this is just my interpritation and the only one who knows the true meaning is T.S. Eliot but we can only geuss. i hope i have helped some of you get some grasp of the poem because this seems mostly like questions. and sorry if i dident help you. -- student at JFK HS MD--

| Posted on 2010-01-18 | by a guest

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I have no idea what this poem is saying but I wish someone would give a clear explanation because I have to write a paper on it! Even though I don't understand the poem, it still gives me a a depressed feeling of doom! I don't like that :(

| Posted on 2010-01-16 | by a guest

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I believe this poem is about a man who is on a desperate attempt to travel to this "kingdom" that he sees in the distance while in the middle of a desert. As he gets closer he becomes weaker and is reaching the point of death. The kingdom he dreams about is only his head playin tricks on him from the unbearable heat. At the end oof the poem the narrator tells how the man dies a slow suffering death rather than a quick painless bang from a gun.

| Posted on 2010-01-12 | by a guest

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The major allusions in this poem are, most significantly, to Conrad's Heart of Darkness (in the epigraph), and also importantly to Dante's Inferno ("death's other kingdom, gathered on the beach of this tumid river", referencing those who weren't permitted into hell, but spent eternity chasing a blank flag on the banks of the river acheron). The limbo/hell imagery is especially important. I think the main motif of the poem is the impotence of man, and the unfulfilled potential of what we could be which is destroyed by our own fallibility ("the shadow"). I believe this feeling of powerlessness (paralyzed force, gesture without motion) is the emotion at the heart of the poem. This is most likely directly inspired by Heart of Darkness and the character referenced in the epigraph, Kurtz, who had all the potential of being a great and brilliant man, but who, left to his own devices, proved to be utterly fallible.

| Posted on 2009-12-16 | by a guest

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The major allusions in this poem are, most significantly, to Conrad's Heart of Darkness (in the epigraph), and also importantly to Dante's Inferno (death's other kingdom, gathered on the beach of this tumid river, referencing the rivers in Hell). The limbo/hell imagery is especially important. I think the main motif of the poem is the impotence of man, and the unfulfilled potential of what we could be which is destroyed by our own fallibility (paralyzed force, gesture without motion). I believe this feeling of powerlessness is the emotion at the heart of the poem. This is most likely directly inspired by Heart of Darkness and the character referenced in the epigraph, Kurtz, who had all the potential of being a great and brilliant man, but who, left to his own devices, proved to be utterly fallible.

| Posted on 2009-12-16 | by a guest

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i belive the most obvious intrepataion is all minority groups who failed to speak there peace or even try.
the image of the american great depression comes to mind with men standing around resigning themselves to the fact that this "is just the way it is" they resist death because no one wants to fail or die but as they continue there silent struggle with voices unheard they find that they are deadmen walking living in the waking kingdom of death and begin to want to escape to the "dream" kingdom of death a.e. real death.
all their humanity disappers with their dignity and this is the way the world ends....

| Posted on 2009-12-14 | by a guest

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Now I understand why I don't like poetry, it has no meaning other than the Authors, and you are all only speculating as to the meaning. And to think I came here to try to have an interest in poetry, you have all failed me miserably..

| Posted on 2009-11-26 | by a guest

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"cool and very vage poem it was so easy to understand that i feel i could also do a poem. And the sad part is that i am only eleven yrs. of age."
Dear eleven year old,
This is not sad at all, you should absolutely write your own poem! You must be a gifted and have someone who cares about your education very much to be reading T.S. Eliot at your age. May you continue to be inspired and to create poetry of meaning in your life today and every day.

| Posted on 2009-11-21 | by a guest

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wow i just read a eleven year old comment by saying this poem is vague. I feel like you just disrespected T.S Eliot. this poem is Not vague at all and alludes to things an eleven year old can't possibly understand.

| Posted on 2009-11-09 | by a guest

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"Between the idea and the reality, Between the motion and the act - Falls the Shadow...
Between the conception and the creation, Between the potency and the existence - Falls the Shadow."
OPPORTUNITY LIES IN THE SILOS

| Posted on 2009-09-23 | by a guest

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I am returning to this poem after many years to find that it's meaning is clearer in my later years than in my high school years of eternal optimism. I am further struck by the amazing contrast between the old and the new (for example, Dante's Inferno and The Waste Land). But as a professional musician, my depth of understanding has been increased as I prepare to perform for the first time Vincent Persichetti's "The Hollow Men" for trumpet and string orchestra. Persichetti's music is haunting and sad yet in the midst of this somehow portrays confidence and peace! Wow!

| Posted on 2009-09-09 | by a guest

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I studied this poem a few years in a H.S. AP English Lit class... Anyone looking for deeper understanding - try reading The Great Gatsby.

| Posted on 2009-08-24 | by a guest

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I wonder if some of these people read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad before trying to analyze this poem. If you haven't got the time to read it, research it. It will bring a better and deeper meaning to it.
From an AP English Student, just trying to point people in the right direction.

| Posted on 2009-08-16 | by a guest

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no doubt,this is the most beautiful poem i ever read.the poet is addressing as hollowmen of twienth century people.the people is blank spiritually.

| Posted on 2009-07-06 | by a guest

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First, I would like to say that, in my opinion, this poem is a very beautiful and powerful poem. I read it three times in order to fully comprehend and experience its marvelous literary effect; each time I read it I felt a cold chill running down my spine, as if I am sensing the hollowness and emptiness that is discussed in this poem.
I believe this poem addresses a very sensitive and important issue that I find quite relevant to our present reality. The allusion to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness at the beginning of the poem: "Mista Kurtz- he dead" has a dramatic effect on the reader and sets a very dark mood that is maintained throughout the poem. T.S Eliot portrays or rather embodies the dehumanization of Kurtz's men and Kurtz himself as they are absorbed in their hollow causes and ideologies; they become "hollow men".
Laura, Acre

| Posted on 2009-06-25 | by a guest

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Wonderful!
This poem is very good and it's remember me a brazilian writer called Machado de Assis, because they have a similar way, whith metaphors, to explain some aspects of humans at all!!
Read MACHADO DE ASSIS!

| Posted on 2009-06-12 | by a guest

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Wonderful!
This poem is very good and it's remember me a brazilian writer called Machado de Assis, because they have a similar way, whith metaphors, to explain some aspects of humans at all!!
Read MACHADO DE ASSIS!

| Posted on 2009-06-12 | by a guest

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Wonderful! This poem is very good and it's remember me a brazilian writer called Machado de Assis, because they have a similar way, whith metaphors, to explain some aspects of humans at all!!
Read MACHADO DE ASSIS!

| Posted on 2009-06-12 | by a guest

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Wonderful! This poem is very good and it's remember me a brazilian writer called Machado de Assis, because they have a similar way, whith metaphors, to explain some aspects of humans at all!!
Read MACHADO DE ASSIS!

| Posted on 2009-06-12 | by a guest

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This poem is not vague at all. You are eleven and this is classic literature with multiple allusions and metaphors.

| Posted on 2009-06-12 | by a guest

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cool and very vage poem it was so easy to understand that i feel i could also do a poem. And the sad part is that i am only eleven yrs. of age.

| Posted on 2009-06-02 | by a guest

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liked it, it was cool but i am only reading it for homework. but for homework it was interesting and deep. he found a good way to express himself

| Posted on 2009-05-28 | by a guest

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i think the theme of the poem is that human beings have become soulless. they try to depend upon each other, but they can not make a society. all their effort are like the running of rats and rustling of dry grass. we do have shapes, but inside their is nothing. we only seem to be walking souls but actually se are not.
muslim

| Posted on 2009-05-23 | by a guest

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why is the person under me being so mean?
i just think that he is lazy and wont have a future.
maybe its YOU who needs to get a life. fool.

| Posted on 2009-05-22 | by a guest

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you all really need to get a life, there are pages and pages of different people commenting on a poem that nobody reads and not many people care about and the only reason i am even here is because I am forced to read this crap for an English project for my junior year of high school, GET A JOB ALL OF YOU ARE SLACKERS

| Posted on 2009-05-22 | by a guest

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Student
For me this poem is an eye opener.
we are now a society that can no longer think for them self... we are to full of beautie and bliss to think about the feelings that matter.. we are hollow beings with out a path untill we make one for ourselfs.. we are nothing..

| Posted on 2009-05-14 | by a guest

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The poet point out that modern man is hollow from inside. The qualities of men like wisdom, spirituality and sublime morality based on a staunch faith are nowhere to be found. They behave as if they are either puppets or dolls. Efforts to generate collective wisdom and intelligence to promote the cause of humanity have failed miserably. They are given to dream of bright future whereas in reality there is no hope for a better future.
People speak out words and think they talk wise things but actually they convey nothing to others as the intelligence of this age is superficial. Modern men have been toeing the wrong life. They attached prime importance to material things and value things unimportant. The result is that they have been denied access to wisdom necessary to promote humanity. Being well equipped and facilitated with material adds modern men appear to be strong but their vigour is just a semblance of strength. They are just like stagnant pools of water… all still and motionless. They are just like stagnant pools of water… all still and motionless. There is no chance of improvement with the present mind set. Modern man also lacks initiative and derives.
The poet understands that beneath this hollowness is absence of a spiritual basis. No elevation is possible without it, so, faith must be restored to modern men.

| Posted on 2009-05-12 | by a guest

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This poem has nothing to do with the great depression, not even a little. This poem was written 4 years before Black Tuesday (Oct 29, 1929) so deffinatly rule that out of your explination.
Part V, however, changes in a radical way the tone of the previous sections of the poem. In it we find a children’s song the main element of which is repetition (lines 68-71). The verve of the nursery rhyme spins us round in a sinister way, since it disturbs the familiar mulberry bush replaced with the arid prickly pear, making the rhyme like some distorted survival of a primitive chant. Eliot’s substitution makes this seem an infertility dance. The sentences from the Lord’s prayer (For Thine is the Kingdom) are confused by the addition of a complaint in the same typographical form (Life is very long) and then we find a tripartite distinction of truncated verses in lines 92-94, as if we had to `fill in the gaps´ to complete them. This fact supports the idea of infertility and emptiness. The last stanza recalls the opening nursery rhyme chorus, but gives it a universal voice which seems to include all that we’ve heard before in what is now a ritual chant with an appropriately childlike sound: [ referencing to the last stanza of the poem]

| Posted on 2009-05-04 | by a guest

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Modern men and women have nothing that can fill the emptiness of their hearts scince they have decided to turn their backs and go away from God.

| Posted on 2009-04-30 | by a guest

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Many people seem to think that this is telling them to "live to their full potential", when in fact this is speaking of really the opposite. It speaks of the debasement and dehumanization of modern man through the rejection of good. How man has left their faith behind, and how society is decaying.It is titled 'The Hollow Men' because man has become nothing more than an empty shell, as it states in the begining of the poem when it references to the scarecrow. In the third stanza, he is speaking of the river Styx and how they are going to hades, and "death's other kingdom" is the living world, and no, he does not speak of a desert, it is the wasteland of society(another poem of Eliot"The Wasteland"). There are allusions to many things in this poem, The Lord's Prayer, Greek Mythology, Pagan Ritual, the "Fisher King" imagery, Children's rhymes, and even Guy Fawkes day.
So, all in all, this is talking of Man's Decay, not having fun.

| Posted on 2009-04-23 | by a guest

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This poem is missing two lines. In the real version there is a quote from The Heart Of Darkness. "Mistah Kurtz -- he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy."
If you read the heart of darkness you would understand more this poem. Mr. Jonhson rules!!

| Posted on 2009-03-31 | by a guest

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In part III where Eliot states, "this is the dead land", I think he means the hollow mens' minds, or, human minds. They are empty, just like 'dead lands' and 'cactus lands'. Cavemen drew 'stone images', right? and cavemen were, well, stupid. so if the stone images are being raised, in the hollow mens' minds, then that means that the hollow men don't think. However, i don't get the part about "here they receive the supplication of a dead man's hand" part.

| Posted on 2009-03-30 | by a guest

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It's too bad that he's passed on: T.S. Eliot could say what he means.
However, The end of the world references, references to "Cactus Land" -- a literal desert? A reference to to current global warming debate? He would be way ahead of his time. It couldn't be a reference to WWII, because the poem was written well before that. Batman? Give me a break. Batman certainly NOT.
The only thing I can determine with certainty: No purpose: Hollow.

| Posted on 2009-03-15 | by a guest

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I like to think that the poem tells us to live full, potent lives without the restraints that organized religion puts on us. I do not know how religious TS Eliot was, but I interpret the "supplication of a dead man's hand" to be our tendency to cling to God, whom the speaker believes is "dead", whatever that means. The "shadow" that occurs between ideas such as "the conception and the creation" and the "emotion and the responce" is our inability to utilize our human popotential to its fullest.

| Posted on 2009-03-12 | by a guest

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this poem is the reflection of the post war period which is full of emptiness,spiritual devoidance,hopelessnes and holowness both in the society and in the people.They failed to realise God and suffered from despair.Eliot's words itself reflects the conditions of that people."Shape without form,shade without colour" thus there in a conflict in the words as well as in the people.The conflict is their inner longing and their actions.They long for the peace but never believe in God.How there can be a peaceful life without His love.Eliot himself suffered from this conflict.The poem starts with Joseph condrad's lines 'MISTAK KURTZ - HE DEAD' it is about a real hero but the second line of'A PENNY FOR THE OLD GUY' is actually a celebration on Nov,5 in memory of an old Guy fawkes who fail to do his plan long ago. The children get the money and burn th effigies of him on that day.Thus it is the mocking of a hero who failed in his work.These lines implies that all the real heroes were really dead and one of them are remembered that too for fun. These lines clearly indicaates that the twentieth century is not a place for real heroes.As the poem was written in the period of great depression the mentality of the peole is clearly captured by Eliot in his poem the hollow men,can be identified with eliot and all the people of modern age.-Maha,M.A.

| Posted on 2009-03-05 | by a guest

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Student
For me this poem is an eye opener.
we are now a society that can no longer think for them self... we are to full of beautie and bliss to think about the feelings that matter.. we are hollow beings with out a path untill we make one for ourselfs.. we are nothing..

| Posted on 2009-02-23 | by a guest

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The poem above is missing the first two lines -- the actual poem begins with,
Mistah Kurtz -- he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy.
The first is a line from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and the second refers to Guy Fawkes. There are quite a few parallels between Conrad's novel and Eliot's poem. To fully understand the poem, it might be a good idea to read the book first.

| Posted on 2009-02-09 | by a guest