T.S. Elliot Hollow Men

Biographical Information  Internationally famous at an early age.  Aristocratic New England family – believed fame was a form of vulgarity.  People never really knew the man  He was remote, austere, and self possessed.  Most celebrated and influential poetry written in English over a span of three decades.

Biographical Information  Educated at Harvard  Settled in London before WWI  Became a British citizen in 1927  1948 – awarded the Nobel Prize  His techniques (along with those of Ezra Pound) became the hallmarks of modern poetry.

Biographical Information  Had vast influence as a poet.  His voice expressed dislocation and despair of the 20 th century  World –weariness, restrained, impersonal cadence – widely imitated  He believed that the work was the most important and it stood apart from the poet (creator).

Hollow Men Page 942

Getting Ready to Read  Based on the title, what do you think the poem is about?

Background  Many references to religion.  Not trying to affirm Christianity, giving a picture of a world of godless despair, without religion or salvation.  The first line of the poem is taken from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Heart of Darkness  Kurtz journeys to the center of Africa and falls into degradation.  Kurtz does not only physically die, but emotionally he dies.  He is described as “hollow at the core.”  Kurtz comes to realize that evil is at the very heart of life.

The Divine Comedy  Written by Dante Alighieri  It is broken up into three parts: Inferno, Pergatorio, and Paradiso  Inferno is an allegorical journey through hell ending with Paradiso the exploration of heaven.  Deals with the question of an afterlife and consequences of our life on earth.

Background  Line 2: “A Penny for the Old Guy” is a historical reference.  Gunpowder Plot – Nov. 5, 1605 people planned to kill King James I. (Guy Fawkes – leader)  Fawkes was arrested and hanged.  Every Nov. 5 th set bonfires all over England

Background  Straw filled scarecrows that represent Fawkes are sent into flames – “stuffed men” from the poem  Children become beggars who ask passersby to give them “a penny for the guy.”

Vocabulary  Staves  Prickly pear  Cactus  Rods or staffs

Allusions  Lines 13-14: Those with “direct eyes” have crossed from the hollow men’s haunts into paradise. Dante’s Paradiso  Line 60: tumid river – Hell’s swollen river, the Acheron in Dante’s Inferno. The damned must cross this river to enter the land of the dead.

Allusions  Line 64: multifoliate rose – Dante describes Paradise as a rose of many leaves (Paradiso, Canto 32)  Lines 74-75: reference to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar  Line 77: Closing of the Lord’s Prayer

Read the Poem

Re-Reading  Lines 1-10: Which words and sounds are repeated most often in this stanza?  Lines 19-28: What is “death’s dream kingdom” like?  Lines 29-36: To what does the speaker wish to be “no nearer”?  What is he trying to avoid by wearing disguises?

Re-Reading  Lines 39-43: How do these lines bring back the original image/reference of dryness that we see in the first stanza?  Lines 68-71: What is Elliot trying to achieve by distorting a common children’s rhyme in this manner?  Line 77: What purpose is served by quoting this fragment of the Lord’s Prayer?

Re-Reading  Why does Elliot end the poem with the word whimper ?