The Hollow Men by Eliot - Poetry Analysis Paper Example

In his literary work The Hollow Men, T.S Eliot sets an extensive range of facts which call for a lot of differences in interpretation of the complex meaning of the poetry. With the poem having been written in a post-war world where various authorities were being overthrown in favor of new reforms, Eliot centers his poem on abundant reference to other literary and historical works. For this reason, the poem The Hollow Men is concerned with the collapse of the moral fabric of society brought on by the nature of humankind to alienate themselves with their spirituality.

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The poem begins with two epigraphs, Mistah Kurtz- he dead and A penny for the Old Guy, which both contain two relevant references to the poem. The poems first epigraph alludes to Kurtz from Conrads Heart of Darkness,' who was a European ivory trader in Africa and whose primary concern was to make money regardless of what was in his way (Conrad). This being said, Eliot uses this epigraph to draw the picture of a character who lacks soul and hence, an ideal Hollow Man as seen afterward though the poem (Line 1). In the same vein, the poems second epigraph is an allusion to Guy Fawkes mismanaged attempt to bomb parliament during the unsuccessful Gunpowder plot which saw the rise of the November 5th holiday in England, known as the Guy Fawkes Day. For this reason, Eliot uses the quote A penny for the Old Guy, which is a phrase used by European children to beg for money to buy fireworks to burn the straw figures of Fawkes. Thus, the references made by the two epigraphs are in relation in the sense that, they both hark back to two monstrous men who firmly believed in what they were doing regardless of how bad the results would be. Therefore, in Eliots account, two different types of hollow/stuffed men are represented as he who lacks soul, Kurtz, and he who lacks physical being, Guy Fawkes, and hence an overall representation of both spiritual and physical hollowness.

The poems text is an immediate follow up of the two epigraphs and in both the first and the second verses, Eliot establishes both the setting and the theme of the poem. Firstly, the first verse of the poem begins by introducing the hollow and stuffed men whose headpieces are filled with straws (Line 1-3). This, also makes reference to Guy Fawkes whose effigy, that is usually in the form of a scarecrow or straw man is burned on a holiday bearing his name. Through this representation, Eliot tries to make the point that any kind of conspiracy to overthrow the medieval authorities were mere empty gestures. Additionally, the poems setting which is drawn from both the first and second verses places the hollow/stuffed men in the context of an external world. This world is depicted as a desert netherworld with everything around them, including their voices and bodies, is bone dry except for the entrance to death which the hollow and the stuffed men cannot cross. This, in essence, represents the fact that the hollow men are stuck between life and death.

Onto the third and the fourth verses, of the poem, the land and the kingdom of the hollow men is a dead land, like a delusion and is stagnant. Also, from the third verse, the description that Eliot gives about this land is of hopelessness which is an exact representation of his view of a desolate world. Having been written in a suffering post-war world that had just begun to explore a new world of new religious beliefs, spirituality is a core theme in the poem. This is evidenced by the line Deaths dream kingdom which means that there are two different sides of eternity which depend on who you are (Line 30). Also, this means that you could either be a hollow man, one who lacks faith, or a stuffed man, who that is full of faith. There are no eyes hereIn this valley of dying stars. Eliot uses The eyes in a symbolic manner to refer to the positive/stuffed men who fulfilled their duty to their faith, and they deserve their Multifoliate rose or rather paradise which is in death's other kingdom, Deaths Twilight Kingdom (Line 54-65).

The final section of the poem opens with a kids rhyme which substitutes mulberry bush, in the nursery rhyme with prickly pear. Like the two epigraphs used at the beginning of the poem, this rhyme is an allusion to the cactus land which gives a summary of deaths other or twilight kingdom of solitude, aridity, and dryness. Besides, the hollow men go around this prickly pear at five oclock in the morning," a time when darkness dissipates and the light from the sun begins to shine (68-71). In Eliots account, the five oclock time has a significance in the sense that, this is a time of returning to life and hope to the hollow men, a resurrection period. Eliot, therefore, continues to develop this time in life throughout the fifth and final verse and in the end presumes that you may expect the world to end with a bang but for the hollow men, this is the way the world ends in a whimper, not a bang (Line, 94).

In a nutshell, the poem The Hollow Men portrays a poetic consciousness in which Eliot, the poet, constructs a desolate world which is described as deaths other or dream kingdom. With this desolate world, the poem explores the nature of humankind to evade their spiritual intention, and hence they become hollow men, as spirituality is their only hope.

Works Cited

All poetry. "The Hollow Men by T S Eliot - Famous Poems, Famous Poets. - All Poetry." The World's Largest Poetry Site - Discussion & Poem Contests, allpoetry.com/The-Hollow-Men. Accessed 24 Jan. 2017.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. U of Virginia Library, 1996.