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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. Part III shows a different situation. We could say that the speaker is not alone at the hour when we are trembling Part IV again mentions the place where the hollow men are the eyes are not here ; in this valley of dying stars, in this hollow valley, this broken jaw of our lost kingdoms, in this last of meeting places , and then a last We grope together , line 58 which clearly refers back to part I.
Symbols and images. The description of the symbols in The Hollow Men will be developed in depth in the interpretation. Nevertheless, we will sketch them out in order to perceive a general overview. On the other hand, the voices and the eyes seem to be appalingly disembodied.
In many literary interpretations the voices symbolise the act of speech and the expression of the thoughts, whereas the eyes have been considered as the external reflection of the soul. In the poem, we ignore who the eyes belong to. This conception of the eyes has to do with that of the star , first appearing as a fading star —a star which is fading either does not exist or is very distant because the only reminiscence we perceive from it is its light-, then becoming dying - and later perpetual —alive, eternal.
Its connection with life and its religious interpretation in relation to after-death transcendence is clear. The references to the realm where The Hollow Men takes place are truly symbolical. It is also mentioned as the twilight kingdom, valley of dying stars, hollow valley —like the men themselves-. There, the eyes do not appear and the voices are meaningless , making the subject fear that realm Let me be no nearer The beach of the tumid river line 60 may symbolise, according to Greek mythology, the river that the souls must cross in order to reach the beyond.
The Shadow —with a capital S - clearly connotes darkness, nightime and death. This time of midnight has always been considered as the hour of resurrection but, what has it got to do with the dance around the prickly pear? It is obvious: this is not a rite of resurrection, but of abortion and interruption of life. Concerning the prickly pear it must be said that due to its use instead of the mulberry bush, its symbolism is increased.
Rhyme and rhythm. In Part I, like all of other parts —except the fifth- the final line of the stanza rhymes with one of the previous lines. This tactic gives the feeling of familiarity and completion at the end of each stanza.
Partial rhymes like alas; If we bear in mind that the mentioned voices are faint, like whispers , this feeling deepens. As regards rhythm, it must be said that the tone is that of exhaustion, yet paradoxically the words do not falter and die as we are given the impression they might; rather, the atmosphere is broken by changes in style.
In other cases, we may lose our breath getting tangled up with long, non-punctuated sentences lines ; lines In Part V, the rhythm dramatically changes. The nursery rhyme in lines is somehow musical and catching, breaking with the previous sections. The last stanza is repetitive, saddening and hopeless, following the general impression of the poem.
Part I. We are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men. The first verses of the poem indicate a contradiction that surprises us. So now we appreciate the difference between the ideas of lack and abundance.
This indicates submission or even surrender Alas! This idea is supported by the followng description of their voices: Our dried voices, when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless. The next stanza is configured by two verses. The first one is Shape without form, shade without color. What may it mean?
At first glance, we could say that, for instance, shape and form are synonyms and shape without form is another contradiction that confirms the previous ideas about the poem. Shade without color has a similar meaning. The whole verse gives us the idea of vanity and futility, as things can only be perceived indirectly through their external appearance.
The second verse in this stanza is Paralyzed force, gesture without motion. In this sentence, the use of the present perfect instead of the present simple used so far gives us the idea of a past action recent in time, or even a remote action with a present consequence. Those have a strong connection with us the hollow men , as they remember them, they knew who they were, but if at all line 16 -without necessity or just as a simple anecdote- the hollow, stuffed men are remebered by those as such, and not as lost, violent souls.
Part I brings the title and theme into a critical relationship. The first stanza —as well as Part V- indicates a church service and the ritual service throughout. The erstwhile worshippers disappear in a blur of shape, shade and gesture to which normality is attached. Part II. The first stanza quickly mentions one of the most important symbols in the poem: the Eyes. In line 19, they function as a direct object and appear at the beginning of the verse.
However, through repetition and poetic diction we could say that the speaker I is referring to the direct eyes in line And why are the eyes so terrible? Now other has been substituted by dream , meaning that the kingdom where the action takes place is not entirely real, but surreal, and it can only be perceived or imagined through a different stage of conciousness. Thanks to the metaphor in verses There, the eyes are sunlight on a broken column we find out that the eyes do indeed appear, but in an indirect way, just as a reflection of themselves.
The adjective broken even emphasises the distortion of the reflected light. But why swinging? Something solemn is serious and has an established form or ceremony, whereas a fading star is a decaying, dying element, because the light it produces is weak and stars are so far away that their light is the only thing we can perceive from them. Here is another description of the place, now it is twilight itself, because that word is not an adjective as it appears in the verse, but a noun.
The relationship between twilight and fading star is obvious: they represent a gradual reduction of light. Not only is the kingdom surreal, but decadent and darkening as well. Verses describe another desire Let me also wear such deliberate disguises. Also indicates either that the speaker is wearing other clothes apart from the ones below line 33 or that pleads for wearing them in addition to being no nearer line And which are those clothes?
The Hollow Men are compared with scarecrows —immobile, soul-lacking puppets filled with straw, human only in appearance. The complement In a field line 34 adds solitude to the utterance. Part II defines the hollow men in relation to the reality that the direct eyes have met. Luckily, they are only reflected through broken lights and shadows, all is perceived indirectly. From this point of view, the speaker could not be any nearer, any more direct, in that twilight kingdom.
Anyway, he fears the ultimate vision line Part III. The author uses cactus as an adjective, making the land desert-like, desolate and dry —like the voices and the grass in Part I. It is, of course, lacking in life, like the ever standing stone images line The whole sentence has a powerful meaning, symbolising the absence of hope and the worthlessness of the supplication due to the nature of the pleading corpse that, here, represents a lost, violent soul.
This childlike connotation will be better explained in Part V. The fading star appears again, but now not as one of the terms in a comparison, but as a visible element in the landscape.
The hollow men are frightened and feel cold trembling. Even so, this action is performed with tenderness , introducing a new element of fondness and affection that did not exist so far. This feeling is better explained in the next verses Lips that would kiss form prayers to broken stone. These verses represent a moan, a need of giving love, a desire which cannot be acomplished because of the physical and spiritual devastation of the place.
It is, in fact, another paralyzed force. A dead, arid land, like its people, raises earthly images of the divine, which are implored by the dead.
Furthermore, the broken stone unites the stone images and the broken column , which bent the sunlight and, by generalisation, reality.
Part IV. In this section, the absence of the eyes is repeated and highlighted by the first two verses The eyes are not here, there are no eyes here. Verses add more dramatism to the place, this time depicting it as a valley of dying stars. This valley —which implies the existence of mountains or a river tumid river , line 60 - possesses dying stars. The fading star has now become dying, indicating the progression towards darkness, disappearance and death.
The valley , how not, is hollow like the men, and it is also described as the broken jaw of our lost kingdoms. The speaker describes how a "shadow" has paralyzed all of their activities, so they are unable to act, create, respond, or even exist. He tries quoting expressions that begin "Life is very long" and "For Thine is the Kingdom," but these, too, break off into fragments.
In the final lines, the "Mulberry Bush" song turns into a song about the end of the world. You might expect the world to end with a huge, bright explosion, but for the Hollow Men, the world ends with a sad and quiet "whimper. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources.
Study Guide. Previous Next. The Hollow Men Summary The poem begins with two epigraphs: one is a quotation from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness remarking on the death of the doomed character Kurtz. Tired of ads?
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