The Hollow Men

I

¹Mistah Kurtz — he dead.

²A penny for the Old Guy

³We are the hollow men

⁴We are the stuffed men

⁵Leaning together

⁶Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

⁷Our dried voices, when

⁸We whisper together

⁹Are quiet and meaningless

¹⁰As wind in dry grass

¹¹Or rats' feet over broken glass

¹²In our dry cellar

¹³Shape without form, shade without colour,

¹⁴Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

¹⁵Those who have crossed

¹⁶With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom

¹⁷Remember us — if at all — not as lost

¹⁸Violent souls, but only

¹⁹As the hollow men

²⁰The stuffed men.

II

²¹Eyes I dare not meet in dreams

²²In death's dream kingdom

²³These do not appear:

²⁴There, the eyes are

²⁵Sunlight on a broken column

²⁶There, is a tree swinging

²⁷And voices are

²⁸In the wind's singing

²⁹More distant and more solemn

³⁰Than a fading star.

³¹Let me be no nearer

³²In death's dream kingdom

³³Let me also wear

³⁴Such deliberate disguises

³⁵Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves

³⁶In a field

³⁷Behaving as the wind behaves

³⁸No nearer —

³⁹Not that final meeting

⁴⁰In the twilight kingdom

III

⁴¹This is the dead land

⁴²This is cactus land

⁴³Here the stone images

⁴⁴Are raised, here they receive

⁴⁵The supplication of a dead man's hand

⁴⁶Under the twinkle of a fading star.

⁴⁷Is it like this

⁴⁸In death's other kingdom

⁴⁹Waking alone

⁵⁰At the hour when we are

⁵¹Trembling with tenderness

⁵²Lips that would kiss

⁵³Form prayers to broken stone.

IV

⁵⁴The eyes are not here

⁵⁵There are no eyes here

⁵⁶In this valley of dying stars

⁵⁷In this hollow valley

⁵⁸This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

⁵⁹In this last of meeting places

⁶⁰We grope together

⁶¹And avoid speech

⁶²Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

⁶³Sightless, unless

⁶⁴The eyes reappear

⁶⁵As the perpetual star

⁶⁶Multifoliate rose

⁶⁷Of death's twilight kingdom

⁶⁸The hope only

⁶⁹Of empty men.

V

⁷⁰Here we go round the prickly pear

⁷¹Prickly pear prickly pear

⁷²Here we go round the prickly pear

⁷³At five o'clock in the morning.

⁷⁴Between the idea

⁷⁵And the reality

⁷⁶Between the motion

⁷⁷And the act

⁷⁸Falls the Shadow

⁷⁹For Thine is the Kingdom

⁸⁰Between the conception

⁸¹And the creation

⁸²Between the emotion

⁸³And the response

⁸⁴Falls the Shadow

⁸⁵Life is very long

⁸⁶Between the desire

⁸⁷And the spasm

⁸⁸Between the potency

⁸⁹And the existence

⁹⁰Between the essence

⁹¹And the descent

⁹²Falls the Shadow

⁹³For Thine is the Kingdom

⁹⁴For Thine is

⁹⁵Life is

⁹⁶For Thine is the

⁹⁷This is the way the world ends

⁹⁸This is the way the world ends

⁹⁹This is the way the world ends

¹⁰⁰Not with a bang but a whimper.