The Hollow No More
(A Response to the Hollow Men)
Hollow, that is what our lives have become, worthless, useless, without meaning. Elliot does a fantastic job in his poem, “The Hollow Men” at expressing this view, of how inhuman the human population has become. In his first stanza he introduces these Hollow Men, their existence is pointless, and they are like scarecrows just sitting without meaning, in a dry deserted area, almost that one hell. They are in a states between Heaven and Hell, they aren’t worth anything to anybody. In the Second Stanza, it is shown that these people are afraid to look at the humans that made it to heaven or hell as though they themselves are just broken things tossed to the side. This is what their world is made out of, broken symbols and images. In Elliot’s third Stanza is used to describe the barren setting that the Hollow Men live in, and that their prayers are to broken stones, or unheard. The Fourth is quite simple sharing how the Hollow Men in stanza two are afraid to look at one another, or be looked at for that matter. The Fifth and final Stanza is modeled around a children’s nursery rhyme, with changed words of course, but ends very drastically, stating the end of the world. Throughout this dreary poem there are a multitude of messages that Elliot has to say about all of the corruption, and where the human species will probably go, the end of the world.
Initially, a very important message that Elliot is trying to portray comes by the means of what the life of a person should be, by comparing these Hollow Men as Empty, yet full at the same time. “Let me be no nearer In death's dream kingdom Let me also wear Such deliberate disguises Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed s...
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...d one of the greatest modern poems, you can probably tell why, it has such meaning behind all of its curtains, with messages spilling out. A plethora of them are shown, but the main being, that people of his day need to regain their faith so instead of just scarecrows of straw they actually mean something with their soul intact, another being the complete worthlessness that has bestowed upon the people of this earth they are more concerned with material things instead of who they are as a person, and finally how just a small child’s nursery rhyme can hit home and foreshadow for the future if there is not change coming. The world is a terrible conniving place but the afterlife is where everything matters, the position you put yourself in life, is the position you will stay in death. And nobody wants to be in the middle.
Works Cited
Pearson Vol. #2, pages 1160-1190
As the first poem in the book it sums up the primary focus of the works in its exploration of loss, grieving, and recovery. The questions posed about the nature of God become recurring themes in the following sections, especially One and Four. The symbolism includes the image of earthly possessions sprawled out like gangly dolls, a reference possibly meant to bring about a sense of nostalgia which this poem does quite well. The final lines cement the message that this is about loss and life, the idea that once something is lost, it can no longer belong to anyone anymore brings a sense...
While the poem's situation is simple, its theme is not. Stafford appears to be intimating that life is precious and fragile; however, nothing so clearly discloses these attributes of life as confrontation with death. Furthermore, the very confrontations that engender appreciation of life's delicacies force action-all to frequently callous action.
His outside actions of touching the wall and looking at all the names are causing him to react internally. He is remembering the past and is attempting to suppress the emotions that are rising within him. The first two lines of the poem set the mood of fear and gloom which is constant throughout the remainder of the poem. The word choice of "black" to describe the speaker's face can convey several messages (502). The most obvious meaning ... ...
In the poem, “The Hollow Men,” isolation is a theme that occurs often. The author, T.S. Eliot, uses the description of hollow men to emphasize his definition of isolation. The hollow men have headpieces that are filled with straw. The straw represents that the heads are empty. The hollow men may have once been associated with royalty but now are filled with straw.
..., the content and form has self-deconstructed, resulting in a meaningless reduction/manifestation of repetition. The primary focus of the poem on the death and memory of a man has been sacrificed, leaving only the skeletal membrane of any sort of focus in the poem. The “Dirge” which initially was meant to reflect on the life of the individual has been completely abstracted. The “Dirge” the reader is left with at the end of the poem is one meant for anyone and no one. Just as the internal contradictions in Kenneth Fearing’s poem have eliminated the substantial significance of each isolated concern, the reader is left without not only a resolution, but any particular tangible meaning at all. The form and content of this poem have quite effectively established a powerful modernist statement, ironically contingent on the absence and not the presence of meaning in life.
The characters of the poem are also some very meaningful keys in showing the hidden meaning. The first stanza describes the crowd that has gathered to watch the enactment of our human lives. Lines three and four states "an angel throng, bewinged, and bedight in veils, and drowned in tears." Poe is stating that a group of angels is going to watch the spectacle put on for them, although they are already drowning in the tears from plays before. The orchestra that plays for them is another set of characters that have meaning. They represent the background in everyone's life by "playing the music of the spheres." A third set of characters that show hidden meaning is the "Mimes, in the form of God on high." They denote the people that inhabit the earth. Poe describes them as "Mere puppets they, who come and go at bidding of vast formless things." The vast formless things are the ideas that we have. Ideas like the things that we think we have to do for ourselves to survive and succeed. They also make up drama of the play. A final, prominent figure in this dramatic performance is the conqueror worm. Poe illustrates it as "a blood-red thing.
On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
“Its deserted streets are a potent symbol of man and nature 's indifference to the individual. The insistence of the narrator on his own self-identity is in part an act of defiance against a constructed, industrial world that has no place for him in its order” (Bolton). As the poem continues on, the narrator becomes aware of his own consciousness as he comes faces nature and society during his walk. He embraces nature with the rain, dark and moon but he also reinforces his alienation from society as he ignores the watchman and receives no hope of cries for him. The societal ignorance enforces our belief that he is lonely on this gloomy night. “When he passes a night watchman, another walker in the city with whom the speaker might presumably have some bond, he confesses, ‘I… dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.’ Likewise, when he hears a voice in the distance, he stops in his tracks--only to realize that the voice is not meant "to call me back or say goodbye" (Bolton). The two times he had a chance to interact with the community, either he showed no interest in speaking or the cry wasn’t meant for him. These two interactions emphasize his loneliness with the
At a point in all mortal’s existence, there will be a moment when their soul is between two states of being, waiting to be judged. Without the fearlessness and faith to move on to the afterlife, they will spend eternity stuck in purgatory. When T. S. Eliot wrote “The Hollow Men,” he used symbolism, imagery, and repetition to share his insight to address the lack of courage and faith that plagues every human being.
suggests that heaven is not real. Another way Eliot makes us think. life is futile is that we feel nothing for the hollow men, they are. emotionally detached from us and we don't care about them or their lives and this suggests that one in the distant future will even know of our existence as many of us make no impression on the world.
Through the progression of the poem the speaker goes from ignoring Death to realizing only through Death can immortality can be obtained. She does not see Death as the blessing that it is, she was all too happy to go about her life toiling away and never paying it any mind. Once she decided to go in a carriage ride with Death and Immortality she saw all the stages of life and through it all Death has the power to give one the ability to live forever.
I found that throughout this poem there was much symbolism within it. Identifying that it was written in first person form showed that this poem relates to the author on a personal basis, and that it was probably written to symbolize his life. But when talking about people’s lives, you can conclude that people’s lives are generally and individually very diffe...
...at the end was then taken over by the earthly passions he was told to let go of and Buddha is unable to do anything about it except conclude and allude to his own sermon by saying burning at the very end. This section if full of allusions and flaws in human society. Elliot uses foreign ideals to convey is morals and point of view of Buddha's Fire Sermon and those of fertility. He uses these specific themes to contrast those of his time during war. He questions if life will be able to continue as it was after the harsh bombings in England and the war in Europe. Moreover if the sexes will begin to converse once more and get out of a time where talking wasn't popular as a war was happening right above their heads. His poetry conveys his morals and beliefs with perfection in his work and shows how a famous poet takes on life in the form of a writer.
The third stanza uses hyperboles to describe the depths of love between the two people and the line “He was my North, my South, my East and West” leads the reader to believe that the person who died set a course and now the speaker does not know what direction to take. The deceased was the speaker’s whole world. The disappointment the speaker is experiencing is conveyed when he says, “I thought that love would last fo...
Hollow men states “the eyes are not here, there are no eyes here” The hollow men realized that there are no eyes in “this” place perceiving they can not actually see. In relation to Kurtz people believed he did not have a soul and people were almost able to see right through him. The men were haunted by shadows preventing them for doing what they needed to do. Kurtz had voices of shadows in his head that also haunted him. ”It survived his strength to hide in the magnificent folds of eloquence the barren darkness of his heart” (Conrad 63).