The Hollow Men

I know I've been talking quite quite a lot about Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"'s theme ever since watching WATCHMEN. Well, it IS fascinating, thanks to my English teacher Ms. Walia, I've actually gotten interested in literature now. To study the fine arts and find it's symbolism, characteristics and plot arcs is just simply amazing...

Anywho from what Ms. Walia told me, from "Heart of Darkness" came out "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot. And from that poem came out the song " Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel. They basically stole from each other but the idea still leaves a lasting impression, especially for me. *grins*

Arrgh! There's soo much more I can add to this!! >< Okay, so, from what I've learned and was told, was that the theme is of savagery. Humans, in nature, are savages. When they go deep inside their own heart, they become more primal with their uncivilized selves. Then they have a choice, to fear it, deny it, or judge it and say something about it. That's what's wrong with the world; there are those who see and can openly judge it, and those who just keep to themselves with their "work". Working, is what saves man from being insane. Odd how it focuses our attention away from the REAL problem, or TRUTH. But also ironically what if your work IS the truth and you can't get away from it? Will you become mad like Kurtz or will you become like the Comedian or the Joker and fuck the world? Those characters are the characters who have been to the edge and found the true meaning of existentialism and whatnot. They have something to say, they have something to do, they say it, they do it. It is the Passion that they have and that we lack even though most of us say we are "motivated" or "planning" to do so. Take Hamlet for instance, why the fuck!? he didn't do what he said what he would do in the begining when he had all the liberty in the world only to delay and be a hypocrite?

hell, even I'm procrastinating right now! I wanted to work out, or do my homework, but look! I'm just writing out all this! Oh well, tis' better to do when one has an inspiration, a passion, and an important thought rather than make a mental note and forget, maybe even forever..

...and here..we..go!

The Hollow Men

T. S. Eliot

Mistah Kurtz—he dead.

 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 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.


source:http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/784/