Summary:

The poem begins with two epigraphs alluding to two examples of "Hollow Men," one
from fiction, the other from history. Then we are introduced to the main characters: a
group of scarecrows leaning together. These Hollow Men narrate the poem in a chorus.
They lament their condition: their bodies paralyzed, their language meaningless. On the
other side of a mythical river, dead ancestors see and judge the men. One of the Hollow
Men relates his fear of meeting the judging eyes of the dead while he is sleeping. They
attempt to pray, but fail. In a desert valley on the bank of an overflowing river under
dying stars, the Hollow Men waver between religious faith and despair. They dance
around a cactus reciting a perverse version of a child’s nursery rhyme. Then in an
antiphonic parody of a Christian worship service, a priest speaks and a congregation
answers. The Shadow of death paralyzes all action and the language of the chorus
disintegrates as they attempt to recite the Lord’s Prayer. The poem and the world ends
an anticlimactic whimper.

analysis:

Section One

Stanza One

We are the hollow men

We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
(…)
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
The poem begins in the first stanza with the speaker who is considered to be the
collective “Hollow Men” He informs the reader of this fact by stating that “We” are
both stuffed and hollow. They are like scarecrows, appearing like men but with a
“Headpiece filled with straw.” 

Their voices, like the rest of their lives and the setting, are dry. They try to speak to one
another, but everything they say is “meaningless.” The speaker ends the stanza by
comparing their words to the wind and the wind to “rats’ feet over broken glass.”
Stanzas Two and Three

Shape without form, shade without colour,

(…)
The stuffed men.
He goes on to refer to himself and all those like him as being “without” true form. They
are a “shade without colour” or a “gesture without motion.” This is how purposeless
their words and thoughts are if they even have any. 

The speaker also describes a scenario in which someone who knows them crossed into
their land. Eliot’s speakers describe how this person if they remembered the Hollow
Men, would know them “not as lost” or “Violent” but simply as “hollow men” or
“stuffed men.” They are filled, but the filling is as good to them as empty space.

 Section Two

Stanza One

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams

In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
(…)
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
The second section of the poem begins with a ten-line stanza. Here, the speaker
describes another feature of the Hollow Men. They are unable to look anyone directly in
the eyes. In particular, they are worried about the eyes from “death’s dream kingdom.”
This is the first reference to Heaven. They do not mention it by name, but it’s clear that
the souls which rise there worry them. 

This is one of the best examples of Eliot tying together different images to produce a
larger result. It is unclear what each of these phrases means, from the “broken column,”
perhaps a reference to the destruction of culture, to the singing of the wind. Likely, the
point Eliot was trying to get across was that the Hollow Men are afraid of something.
That something could be death, truth, or a reality they are unwilling to confront. 
 Stanzas Two and Three

Let me be no nearer
(…)
In the twilight kingdom
In the next stanzas, the speaker asks that the souls from Heaven stay away from the
Hollow Men. They do not wish to be any nearer to Heaven or to any of those whose
eyes might tell them something about themselves they don’t want to know. 

This stanza ends with another interesting image. This time the men are compared in
earnest to scarecrows. They are trying to disguise themselves as something they aren’t
but are quite close to actually being. The wind moves them, just as it would a scarecrow
and they can be found in “deliberate disguises” consisting of “crowskin” and “crossed
staves.” The third stanza is only two lines and contains a plea from the men that the
“final meeting,” or God’s judgment of them in heaven is delayed. 

 Section Three

Stanza One

 This is the dead land

This is cactus land
(…)
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
The setting which hosts the Hollow Men is further described in the third section. Just as
they are broken, dry and barren, so too is the “dead land.” It is a desert, filled with cacti
and “stone images.” These stones have been raised in order to beg for Heaven’s help. It
is a small gesture, that seems futile underneath “the twinkle of a fading star.” The star is
very distant, far out of reach, but it still represents some kind of hope. That is until it
finishes fading. 

 Stanza Two

Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
(…)
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.
The Hollow Men ask in the second stanza of the third section if “death’s other kingdom”
is like theirs. They appear to be in some kind of purgatory, between life and death. This
hope is minimal, and the best they can envision is a world where people are somewhat
happier but still pray to “broken” stones. 

Those in the other kingdom of death are better off, but not by much. They still walk
alone at the same time as the Hollow Men do, but are not completely alone. 

 Section Four

Stanza One and Two

The eyes are not here

There are no eyes here
(…)
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
In the first stanza of the fourth section, the speaker returns to the image of the eyes.
They are unable to follow men to their “ valley of death.” This references the popular
Psalm 23 regarding “walking through the valley of the shadow of death.” In this
instance though, the men do not have God to comfort them as the Psalm states. 

Once again one comes across the word “broken” in this stanza. In this instance, it is
attached to the phrase, “this broken jaw of our lost kingdoms.” It is unclear what Eliot
intended with this line but perhaps it is simply connected to physical degradation and
inability to function painlessly. 

In the second stanza, the group of speakers states that it is in the kingdom that they
gather. It is the “last of meeting places” where they can avoid the eyes. The men stand
on the “beach of the tumid,” or swollen, “river.” The use of the word “river” connects
this stanza back to the second line of the opening epigraph concerning the River Styx.
They wait without conversing, for someone to take them across. At this point, they’re
stuck. 
 Stanza Three

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
(…)
The hope only
Of empty men.
The third stanza is a great example of Eliot’s desire to reference other literary works.
This time he speaks on the “Multifoliate rose” in Dante Alighieri’s Paradiso, the third
book of The Divine Comedy. The rose has many petals and is a stand-in for heaven. The
kingdom is a rose of God’s grace, good virtues, and angels. 

It is not until the eyes come, reform themselves into a star, that the Hollow Men are
going to be able to see again. This is when their hope will truly return. The men do not
seem to have the ability to get themselves out of this situation. 

 Section Five

Stanza One and Two

Here we go round the prickly pear

Prickly pear prickly pear
  (…)
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
The fifth section is different than those which came before it. The stanzas are
constructed in the form of a song, perhaps sung by the Hollow Men themselves. They
are singing a version of “Here we go ‘round the mulberry bush,” but rather than a bush,
they have a “prickly pear” cactus, common to their desert landscape. Eliot states that the
men dance at “five o’clock in the morning.”

The next stanza explains that all along, the thing which has kept them from changing
their own situation was “the Shadow.” This for is undefined but it comes “Between the
idea / And the reality.” It blocks any intentions for change the men might have. There is
no way for their motions to coalesce into actions. 
The line “For Thine is the Kingdom” is separated from the rest of the text. This is part of
the Lord’s Prayer but is missing the ending, “and the power, and the glory, forever and
ever. Amen.” Eliot includes this fragment of the prayer to show the good intentions of
the men but their inability to do anything to completion. 

 Stanza Three and Four

Between the conception

And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
(…)
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
The third and fourth stanzas of the fifth section follow a similar pattern to the second.
They are other lists of ephemeral places that “the Shadow” hides. It is between
“conception / And the creation” as well as “the desire / And the spasm.” All of these
comparisons are interesting in themselves but in general, they bring one to the
conclusion that “the Shadow” keeps the beginning from leading to the end. 

In between these two stanzas is the line, “Life is very long.” This seems to be a simple
expression of exasperation over their own situation. Due to their position somewhere
between life and death, “Life” could be very long indeed. After the second stanza, there
is another long line, this time the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer. Again, the men are
stymied. They can’t finish the prayer. 

 Stanza Five and Six

 For Thine is
Life is
(…)
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
In the fifth stanza, Eliot uses three more fragmented lines. These are parts of the
previous fragments that appeared between the longer stanzas. They are included in order
to emphasize the speakers’ broken lives. The lines have no endings as if the degradation
of their situation is progressing even further. 

The final four lines are perhaps the most famous Eliot ever wrote. They come down to
the phrase, “This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.” The
phrase is connected again to the song that inspired the first stanza which includes a
number of phrases that begin with “This is the way…” Rather than maintaining the
song’s original happy, child-friendly tone though, the speakers sing on death. 

The world does not end with huge wars, catastrophic damage, or even a literal giant
explosion. Instead, it goes out as the men do, with “a whimper.” It is a dark vision and,
if not disappointing, intentionally anti-climactic ending to the world.