Same Poet - Another Voice

Here are the words of the Hollow men by T.S.Eliot followed by a link to a recitation by a modern reader...for me, this rendition allows me to access the meaning and the emotional impact of the poem.

In the video clip of The Waste Land you will have noticed at the beginning, a draft of the poem which has been altered many times by Eliot - his jottings and deletions are across the page in his own hand. I am convinced that great poetry is crafted out of thought, patience and the willingness to keep working with words and with meaning. I remain certain that good poetry seldom arises  out of first drafts.

The reader in this video has imposed his understanding of The Hollow Men by setting it around images of the First World War. As you read or listen to the poem, what meaning does it hold for you?

Click her for the The Hollow Men video.


Here is the text:

The Hollow Men

T. S. Eliot

      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 and 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 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.

      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
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

      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 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.

      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 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.

      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.

Online text © 1998-2011 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Hollow Men | 1925

The Influential Poets

A poet friend of mine reflects a widely held view when he says that T.S. Eliot revolutionised modern poetry.

Having read poetry all my life, I have come under the influence of many different styles of poetry and have internalised those schemes and rhyming patterns that appealed most to my natural inclination. Some say that this is reflected in my writing...some even say there is an edge of another century in my voice? Well, I am not so sure of that. What I am sure of, is that many writers have contributed to the way I think. Exposing yourself to a range of authors will assist you in finding a style of composition that suits your natural inclination.

Here is a video presentation of T.S. Elliot reading Part 1 of the Wastelands...some of the images give us a living insight to the man and the voice helps us to see how great poetry is constructed and how vocal presentation has changed in modern times. Click On This Text To View. In a later posting I will present a modern reader reciting The Hollow Men by Eliot, in it you will find that a different voice helps you to access the emotion of the poem. This is my favourite recitation of that poem.