Monday, October 06, 2008

Journal Entries for "The Hollow Men"

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the poem ,"The Hollow Men" by T.S Eliot, men are being portrayed as lonely and meaningless. These men have nothing to live for becuase they have no one to be with for the rest of thier days. This poem compares a lonely man's life to that of death's other kingdom. Death's other kingdom is described in part 3, "This is the dead land This is cactus land". I knew that the hollow men was being described as a lonely person because in part 3 it saids, " Waking alone at the hour when we are trembling with tenderness". The thing that confused me the most was in part 5 when a type of song is written that saids, " Here we go round the prickly pear Prickly pear prickly pear".

Anonymous said...

Nadege
The poem "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Elliot was quiet confusing. It was hard for me to grasp what the author was trying to say. What i understood about this poem was that the hollw men were lonely and meaningless, "Are quiet and meaningless.." and "waking alone at the hour when we are trembling with tenderness...". I think that there is also a comparison that is going on between the the lonely hollow men and death's other kingdom "between the idea and the reality...between the potency and the existence and the descent falls the shadow". What I did not understand was why T.S. Elliot added the italics in part 5 "Here we go around the prickly pear.....This is the way the world end....Not with a bang but a whimper." i think that it is a song, if it is what does this song has to do with the poem? T.S. Elliot kept mentioning about the deaths other Kingdom, is there anything in the deaths other kingdom that is being personified. "The eyes are not here There are no eyes here" I want to know what eyes is he talking about. Is the eyes hes talking about is a metaphor?

Anonymous said...

The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot is a fragmanted poem (broken up into five parts) which tells a story of "Hollow Men." These men are not actual men at all, but souls trapped between heaven and hell.
"Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion," (11-12).
The spelling of the word "colour" allows the reader to conclude that this poem is taking place in England. Also, the poet repetitively refers to death's dream to a kingdom (also supporting this is writen in England - The United Kingdom).
Imagery is used throughout the poem along with diction to descibe the feelings and thoughts of the souls. "Dried," "whisper," "quiet," "meaningless," and, "broken," (5-9), are diction which express the souls meaningless existance.
The repition at the end of the poem -
"This is how the world ends,"
Which is repeated three times supports the claim that Hollow Men are souls which are souls stuck in a relm inbetween heaven and hell.

Anonymous said...

LOL @ Jennifer and Nadege posting simultaneously! :)

I must say, that from just reading the title, I thought this poem would be about Women who are being mistreated by men and claim they have no conscience.

Anyway...Let's Begin the Analysis!

Journal Entry

Speaker: The hollow men (narrative?)

Theme: Heartache

I found this poem to have a very depressing tone. These womanless men are mere shells of their former selves. Hence the title "The Hollow Men." I found the allusion to the cheerful tune "Here we go round the Mulberry Bush" in the beginning of stanza 5. I found it to be oxymoronic to have such despair-esque lyrics to a mellow tune.

The visual imagery like "In this valley of dying stars" and " death's twilight kingdom" show that the place where these men's spirits are isn't a very pleasant one. Their wretched heartlessness has led their spirits to a realm most unbefitting for anyone. The mention of the "form prayers to broken stone" seems to connect this spiritual realm with the real world. I think this is an admission of the friends/family/etc. that care about these hollow men, and hope for them to find love eventually.

To conclude, the hollow men are having trouble finding love, and their spirits have departed to this world of barren landscapes and hopelessness. Ironically, the hollow men themselves are not alone, since they're immersed amongst each other, so loneliness isn't an issue except in the sense of not having a mate.

Anonymous said...

The poem "Hollow Men" by T.S Eliot has a sad, melancholy, depressed tone. The diction in the poem contradict each other but that is what makes it interesting and different. The speaker in the poem speaks as the whole human race at times, for example, "We are the hollow men", line 1. At other times, it brings it to first person, "eyes I dare not meet in dreams", line 1 stanza 2. Hollow men are people who live without motivation or will to live. It is a term refered to God. Perhaps sinful people. The imagery is intense and very vivid in my mind. It helps me imagine and understand the speaker's point of view. Death is definately a metaphor as well as heaven and hell. The speaker is afraid to die and go to the "kingdom". The speaker disguises himself in "rat's coat", "crowskin", "crossed staves". The speaker hopes to live forever because he doesn't identify himself as a hollow man.

ESTEFANY FRIAS

laurenesme said...

so interesting to see the different discoveries you each make.

Anonymous said...

The Poem “The Hollow Men,” written by T.S. Elliot, is a poem with a very sad, depressed melancholy tone to it. But even with that it also has a religious theme that goes along with it. Throughout the poem you can find some oxymoron’s that the author uses, I think is to show that they are not what they appear to be, or what people say they are. For example in the beginning of the poem it says, “We are Hollow Men, we are the stuffed men,” and also in the 3rd section of the poem it says, “This is the dead land, This is cactus land.” Both of those statements represent oxymorons. Then at the beginning of section two, you can see that the author/narrator switches into first person point of view. In the poem the author shows death as having two kingdoms. One where the eyes are sunlight on a broken column and the other are eyes you do not dare to meet in dreams. My thought is that the two kingdoms represent heaven and hell when ones soul is taking away from the body. Although when I first read the poem I was completely lost, I had to read it over again to really get better understanding of what the poem was about. I think it is a really well written poem.

Anonymous said...

This poem seems to be about the sorrows of a person who is already dead. Try rereading this with that view. See if you can find references to a grave and a graveyard. I may be wrong but that is my impression.