The Hollow Men

[Horn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KvkJdcmqek

[Horn]

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.

[Horn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9TNNtRgHN4

[Saul Mine]

I guess we have had all the reruns of WW2 that we could stand, so now we have to endure reruns of WW1.

[Fortyone]

I guess we have had all the reruns of WW2 that we could stand, so now we have to endure reruns of WW1.


I guess you could always look at something else right? or do you just like to complain about threads?

[keehah]

420 words.



http://mural.uv.es/rubafa/hollowmen.htm

[Horn]

Right, keehah.

The depth of interpretations are immense,,, and words are only that.

This poem is compelling to me, conveying the need for acting toward one's purpose, be it away from what one has been "stuffed" with.

I think it is timely & could be helpful to many people realizing what this is all for.

Also could work to accentuate the "stuffing" to "terminal stuffing velocity".

If you get my drift?

For Thine is

Life

[Libertarian_Guard]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th8Y2V0qumE&feature=related

[Horn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nmq46OXzkY

[Horn]

From the keehah link.


In this section, the absence of the eyes is repeated and highlighted by the first two verses (The eyes are not here, there are no eyes here). The hollow men are still in death’s other kingdom (here) and not only do they assume that the direct eyes do not appear (The eyes are not), but they’ve also found out that any kind of eyes exist in this place (There are no eyes), not even theirs, or anyone else’s. In this moment, they’re blind and cannot perceive the surrounding su-reality (Sightless, line 61).

Verses 54-56 add more dramatism to the place, this time depicting it as a valley of dying stars. This valley –which implies the existence of mountains or a river (tumid river, line 60)- possesses dying stars. The fading star has now become dying, indicating the progression towards darkness, disappearance and death. The valley, how not, is hollow like the men, and it is also described as the broken jaw of our lost kingdoms. From a literal vision of the verse, we could say that broken jaw is related to the men’s inability to speak, but it has a figurative sense: it is like the black sheep of the universe, the most scornful place anybody has ever set a foot on. Our lost kingdoms emphasises its remoteness, as if it were a land that cannot be easily discovered and explored.

The end is nigh, and this kingdom will become this last of meeting places (line 57), meaning that the hollow men have met in different places, but this one, without any doubt, will be where they will eventually have to say goodbye to each other. The next verse explains the hollow men’s blindness and silence (We grope together and avoid speech). Grope means “to search blindly with the hands”, but it also has a sexual connotation: “to fondle for sexual pleasure”. The first definition is clear within the meaning of the text, but the second one is harder to explain. Maybe they’ve realised they won’t be together anymore and decide not to talk and let their instincts flourish, but perhaps this is going too far. The eroticism of the image is also manifest with the appearance of the beach of the tumid river (line 60). On one hand, the river’s volume has increased and it might overflow at any moment, like in an explosion of sexual impulse. On the other hand, the river, in relation to verses 13-14, might symbolise the one that wandering souls must cross to reach the beyond, accompanied by Acheron, the boatman in classical mythology. In any case, the hollow men are doomed.

Later on, a terrifying element transforms into the only source of their salvation (Sightless, unless the eyes reappear as the perpetual star, multifoliate rose of death’s twilight kingdom). It doesn’t say, for instance, reappear as the `fading/dying star´ or `sunlight on a broken column´, but as the perpetual star, multifoliate rose. We may also say that the eyes could be Acheron’s, meaning that depending on their appearance, they will be a guide either to paradise or to hell. Anyway, here we understand perpetual as `eternal, ever shining´ and the multifoliate rose as life, freshness and youth. So the hollow men wish the eyes to return as something alive and creative, not frightening or deceasing, but we already know that this desire will not bear fruit.

The last verses of this section (The hope only of empty men) make us wonder: are the eyes their only hope, or is the salvation they bring only applicable to the hollow men? The truth is that the sentence is rather ambiguous. Both could be thought as correct. And not only that, the men become empty, gaining a much more literal significance –they’ve lost the straw fulfilling them, now their hollowness is complete.

Part IV explores the loving impulse in Part III in relation to the land, which now darkens progressively as the valley of the shadow of death. Now there are not even hints of the eyes, not even the hollow men’s, and they are without any vision, unless the eyes come back as a source of life. But for them, this is only a futile hope.