The imagery depicted in T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men" evokes a sense of desolate hopelessness and lends to Eliot's generally cynical view of civilization during this period in history. A reaction of deep and profound disappointment in mankind around him is made evident in this stark work, first published in 1925. In this short piece, Eliot enumerates several deep faults he finds in his fellowman, including hypocrisy, apathy and indifference, and leaves the reader with a feeling of overwhelming emptiness.

An important feature of this poem is the fact that the narration of the poem is in first person. This establishes Eliot's and the readers relationship to the images and ideas presented. When the poem begins "We are the hollow men" rather than "They are ..." or "You are..." the reader is immediately included somehow in this description, along with Eliot himself. This type of narration creates a sense of common "hollowness" and by the end of the poem, therefore, a sense of common responsibility and guilt. Early in the poem, Eliot creates a world of desolation. The idea of dryness is emphasized by the repetition of the word "dry" in the first stanza, where we read of "dried voices,"

"dry grass" and "dry cellar." When he mentions the sound of "rats feet over broken glass" he succinctly and subtly prods at our anxieties about urban disease and decay, showing us a sort of fleeting snapshot, almost subliminally planted, and raising in us an instantaneous reaction of revulsion.

In the next short stanzas Eliot spells out the true meaning of responsibility and accountability. When he depicts a "Shadow" falling between the intention and the outcome, he is stating that having some kind of abstract good intentions does not excuse anyone from being held accountable from a bad outcome. The bits of the Lord's Prayer which creep in serve here as a reminder to Christians that their God will not accept any excuses for sin. The phrase "Life is very long" when used as a counterpoint to the Prayer seems to be the voice of mankind, the hollow men, trying to make some excuse along the lines of "but it's so hard to be good all the time." This reinforces the idea of the shadow falling between intentions and outcome, revealing that a large amount of time passing can obscure the intentions of men.

The idea of being afraid to face death and feeling guilt over the deaths of others contributes to the full explanation of what Eliot mea

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Approximate Word count = 837
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)