What is the Meaning of the hollow men poem?

Answer 1

I believe that this poem is trying to tell us that humans don't have enough hope or spirituality in them and that is what makes us so hollow on the inside. I believe that Eliot is trying to tell us that many humans are not even aware of their own identity and that society is lost in the formation f belief and spirituality. Deaths dream kingdom, I believe is symbolizing heaven because he is saying deaths 'dream' kingdom. He is trying to tell us that once someone dies; there is no coming back and it's too late then to think of how unspiritual we were. "Headpiece filled with straw" (TS Eliot). I think that in this quote, he is symbolizing the 'hollow' men with a scarecrow and how like scarecrows, sometimes humans can be light headed and quiet about our beliefs and in which leads to a negative formation in society. I think that the quote, "those who have crossed with direct eyes, to death's other kingdom" (TS Eliot) is talking about all those people who have died and have crossed over to the other side of deaths kingdom (heaven) are all people in who had spiritual belief. In this poem, I also believe that Eliot is talking about the soldiers in war and how they are affected by the lack in spirituality and hope.

"We are stuffed men, leaning together…remember us-if at all-not as lost violent souls" (Eliot). These lines in the poem proves that he is talking about the soldiers in war and how that when they die, they are to be remembered as the "violent souls" because of the job in war. This poem can also relate to soldiers in war and how people fighting are also people with no spirituality or belief. This is because what spirituality is there when one kills another being. "Than a fading star" (TS Eliot) can also represent a soldier that is dying in war and fading away.

"Of deaths twilight kingdom the hope only of empty men" (TS Eliot). This is a powerful quote in which I think that Eliot is trying to say that humans tend to always dream about heaven and what it's like on the other side and hoping to live a better life there when we are not paying attention to the life around us and what we should be doing to have hope and believe in this generation. Humans tend to hope about the life on the other end and do not really take into account that we need to first live the life in the present and build the world and society. Humans need more belief and hope and spirituality in today's presence.