Name:
T.S. Eliot – “The Hollow Men”
Preview: Before reading predict what the poem will be about.
1. What period in history did the author write?
2. What events in the author’s life might contribute to the poem? What is the author’s
motivation?
3. Using the title and the background info you just learned, make a prediction about the
poem.
I. We are the hollow men More distant and more solemn
We are the stuffed men Than a fading star.
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Let me be no nearer
Our dried voices, when In death's dream kingdom
We whisper together Let me also wear
Are quiet and meaningless Such deliberate disguises
As wind in dry grass Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
Or rats' feet over broken glass In a field
In our dry cellar Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer --
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion; Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom III. This is the dead land
Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost This is cactus land
Violent souls, but only Here the stone images
As the hollow men Are raised, here they receive
The stuffed men. The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
II. Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom Is it like this
These do not appear: In death's other kingdom
There, the eyes are Waking alone
Sunlight on a broken column At the hour when we are
There, is a tree swinging Trembling with tenderness
And voices are Lips that would kiss
In the wind's singing Form prayers to broken stone.
IV. The eyes are not here For Thine is
There are no eyes here Life is
In this valley of dying stars For Thine is the
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
In this last of meeting places This is the way the world ends
We grope together Not with a bang but a whimper.
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river 4a. What is the tone? What is the mood?
Are they the same in this poem? Why?
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose b. What words contribute to the
Of death's twilight kingdom mood/tone?
The hope only
Of empty men.
5a. What is the conflict in the poem?
V. Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear b. Explain.
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality 6. Choose two poetic devices from your
Between the motion terms illustrated in the poem. Find a quote
And the act to illustrate each.
Falls the Shadow
a.
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception b.
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response 7a. What is the theme? (Must be one
Falls the Shadow sentence. No character names or plot.)
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm b. What line best supports the theme?
Between the potency Why?
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow 8. Which characters would T.S. Eliot find to
For Thine is the Kingdom be hollow in The Great Gatsby? Why?