27 Sep: "The Hollow Men" part 5

https://allpoetry.com/The-Hollow-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.

3 comments:

  1. The light and dark
    the this and that
    scenarios. Good and evil? Similar to Part 3.
    The hope is balance, not necessarily good.
    Sadness- "this is the way the world ends not with a bang but a whimper"...
    If, following all parts of the poem, war leads to this hopelessness and questions on god and the end, then the conclusion remains a little hopeless. The hollow man, our hallow man, may be speaking as god himself as the narrator? The "holy man"...the narrator playing god- a war between good and evil...or as one of my favorite songs goes "we are caught up in the crossfire of heaven and hell".

    This series was fun to read...going to check out some of the official reviews for more clarity.

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  2. A few different reviews (would make sense to read Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" in regards to interpretation...):
    http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/hollow.htm
    http://www.shmoop.com/hollow-men/summary.html

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  3. I look at shmoop. The children's rhyme makes sense now.

    The poor hollow men. Not good enough for heaven or hell. Stuck in between, just waiting. Is that how society is? Most not good or bad enough, just stuck

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