Monday, January 18, 2010

The Hollow Men

The Hollow Men
by T.S. Eliot
A penny for the Old guy

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 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 eye, 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
The 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 stave
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 hands
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Walking alone

At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayer 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 grop 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 only hope
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.
















13 comments:

KRITI said...

Hiee.....
really one of the best blogs i hv evr came acrossed..... :) congratulations...

Nicole Linette said...

One of my friends texted me the final stanza of this poem recently. It's a bit chilling.

~ nicole.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
aKidos said...

ur blog is so gothic ... anyway nice blog.

Katy4545 said...

I really like your blog. Most of your posts I can really relate to.

Bouncy Castle Hire Weston-Super-Mare said...

Excellent, you got some PURE skillz there, make sure you keep it up, this kind of thing reflects what happens in life... Trust me

Unknown said...

I'm impressed you know the poem.

Shahroz said...

Very impressive poem, I must admit. Although your blog seems a bit on the negative side (wink wink) you have to admire the quality of the work.

Lexcen said...

What is it about T.S.Eliot that appeals to the teenager?

bayu adhi gunawan said...

this poem very beautiful. I like this

魯肉飯Kirk said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Gaby uzcategui said...

Hey.
Im new at this bloggin thing :D so hello :D , ur blog came out to me randomly.. im too far away from u. i liked this part of ur blog..
anyway. im from costa rica :D

I love poetry,& i liked this poem.

Anonymous said...

I absolutely love this poem.

I always interpretted it as being trapped in limbo - is this how you feel?

But I can't believe your life and the way you live. I'm sorry to be blunt, but the way your parents treat your relationship is dispicable. If you are senior, I assume you are at least 17? Then you are your own person. If you want to have a boyfriend, that is none of their business. If you want to have (legal and natural) sex with your boyfriend (not that you said you have) then that is none of either his or your parent's business either. God, I feel so angry for you. Why don't you just leave home?

x