Comment 44 of 44, added on March 7th, 2009 at 12:22 AM.

Hello, Anonymous, awake at almost 3 am to write comments on poems; I, too, am one who loves the night.

I always thought this poem very pretentious and contrived in its obscurity, but never thought of it in relation to Conrad. That makes it clear why I never liked it; I also thought Conrad was pretentious, contrived, and obscure. But the last quatrain makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it?

Anonymous, also from United States

Comment 42 of 44, added on November 13th, 2008 at 1:12 PM.

The statement that “Hollow Men” makes about the individual of the twentieth century is mainly the denial of anything related with the supernatural world, and, definitely, the rejection of God and of Love, which is the same thing according to St. John.
One the one hand, as we can see from the very beginning, T. S. Elliot commences his poem with these words: “We are hollow men / we are the stuffed men/ Leaning together/ Headpiece fill with straw” (verses 1-4). If we analyze this quotation in depth, we will find the crucial identification of modern men and women with the hollow men, because they are also a headpiece fill with straw, since they have radically rejected God because they do not want to engage with anything associated with the supernatural world; therefore, modern men and women have nothing that can fill the emptiness of their hearts since they have decided to turn their back and go away from God. Furthermore, they have reached a point in which they have defied God; that is why, these people are trying to fill their hearts with worldly things, but they will never achieve their purpose since God’s love and nothing else is the only thing that can really satisfy the human heart; thus, St. Agustin states: “Our heart will be uneasy until it rests in You.” Definitely, the modern men and women are empty of ideals, hope, faith, and of love, which resembles or, better to say, identifies them with the hollow men. They believe that there is nothing transcendental because there is no love in them, since they have freely rejected it; as a result, the modern men and women represent a society of hollow men who have never taken a stand, who flow down the river and not against it, and who are happy to live a mediocre life (see verses 72-90 from the “Hollow Men”).
On the other hand, the hollow men are unable to communicate among themselves, which is what is actually happening with the modern men and women, because the hollow men cannot have an exchange of feelings, experiences, or anything that can reflect a little amount of love, and, accordingly, Elliot states: “Our dried voices, when / We whisper together / Are quiet and meaningless” (verses 5-7). Here, we clearly see how difficult and even impossible the communication among the hollow men is. Their voices are dried, quiet, and meaningless perhaps not because they do not try to speak, but because they are interiorly and spiritually empty; in other words, the problem is not that they cannot talk because they do not have a mouth, but because they do not have a heart. There is no love in them; that is why, they are unable to utter any word to one another, since when there is love there is always something to say or to express to the beloved person, and, even if the beloved individual do not speak to each other at all, this does not mean they do not love each other; moreover, sometimes a simple look or contemplation of the beloved person is enough to satisfy a heart in love; therefore, words are not necessary to express love to another person. For this reason, the hollow men cannot also show or express love and perceive the face of the beloved one, so that they can contemplate him or her, because as Elliot wrote also they are: “Shape without form, shade without color, / Paralyzed force, gesture without motion.” (verses 11-12). How is someone going to love a person if he or she cannot recognize the beloved one for he or she does not have a face or form that can distinguish him or her from others (shape without form)? How can there be love if one cannot express it (gesture without motion)? The hollow men do not even have a face through which they can show love; that is why, they can neither love nor be loved.
Up to now, everything seems too dark for both the hollow men and the modern men and women. However, if we look insightfully into this poem, we can still find that the hollow men have a minimum amount of conscience and feelings, which might be a sign of hope and ultimate redemption for the modern society; thus, Elliot says in his poem: “Sightless, unless / The eyes reappear / As the perpetual star / (…)/ the hope only / Of empty men” (verses 61-67). Certainly, as we have seen, modern men and women have lost their ideals, conscience, principles, and almost everything worthy, and, furthermore, they are empty of spiritual life (love); however, one could still argue that the hope is only for the hollow men (and also we might say of modern men and women). When the hollow men talks about the eyes and the perpetual star, maybe Elliot is using a metaphor to say “saints”, and these “saints” are the hope only of empty men. Who are these “saints” in modern society? Well, the answer is simple: we, Christians, should be those saints, for all Christians since baptism are called for holiness because, as Christ encourages us, we should be the light of this world and the salt of the earth.
Finally, I think that the statement proposed by T. S. Elliot in the “Hollow Men” is that the modern men and women have forgotten the transcendental meaning of life, which is the consequence of the total forgetfulness and denial of God and of love. Certainly, human heart has an almost infinite capacity of receiving love, which only God can provide, and, when modern men and women refuse God, they are actually denying love, and the cost of this decision are the one we observe in hollow men’s lives. We need God to truly fill our lives; otherwise, we are lost.



Fernando from Chile