The Hallow Men

“Or rat’s feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar”

We always think that rats are lowly and dirty. So I thought that I was interesting whenever T.S Elliot speaks of things we find valuable like crystal or wine cellars there are always rats near. But on a deeper level since we are hallowed and transparent soles, but since we are so empty we can be filled with evil and shattered. The idea of disguises popped in to my mind to because our fake personas eventually shatter.

“Remember us – if at all – not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hallow men
The stuffed men”

At first when I read this I thought that he was speaking to prosperity or humanity. My mind jumped to WWII did the Nazis want us to see them as hallow men? But then I thought is this the dying thought of a man pleading to god? Is he asking to not judge their souls as harshly? Eve did eat the apple is he asking to be saved. When I read this I also thought of Author McCarthy’s quote “Soldiers never die they just fade away.” If we don’t remember these souls fondly do they want to be forgotten? Is it better to be infamous or forgotten? When you look at Hitler do you see a hallow man stuffed with hate or a man who lived for something even if it was for evil?

“Eyes I dare not meet in dreams”

This can go many ways. Are the eyes the eyes of men you have killed? But to me I pictured those cheesy scary movies where the killer looks in the mirror to discover that they were the killer. As a human I know I deny the evil inside of me and repress it. If we acknowledge our evil self’s do we become full? Or are the eyes of you self the rebel that wants to break conformity and you dare not acknowledge that? Is being different really what gives our lives meaning? Or are the eyes the eyes of the lord, or the devil? Could the eyes be the eyes of truth, death? You could write a novel on just these seven words.

“Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.”

These were my three favorite lines in this poem! To me these lines mean that mans greatest hope is to ascend to heaven. The next line implies that this is what makes us empty. Does this hope make us empty because we live our lives on earth to prepare for the next? To many religious people that hope and faith is what gives us meaning and substance, but does that faith blind us and leave us hallowed? If that is true then how the faithless live knowing do they are bound for an eternity of nothing. What do they live for? If they arrive at hells gates would they regret not being hallow would they change? Which to me going to hell is the worst thing ever so I raise the question is not being hallowed really worth it? I would rather have faith and be as transparent as air.

“Between the conception
And the creation”

I thought of Adam and Eve, Eve ate the apple dooming humanity to darkness. Do humans not have the choice to be full or are we doomed to putter around this universe for no reason at all. Life is very long I thought this was interesting because we strive to live as long as possible but why? If we have no reason to be here then why would you want to try and keep yourself entertained for longer?

“This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”

We always imagine the world ending with spewing volcanoes the earth ripping open at the seams consuming skyscrapers, zombies roaming rapid, not as a slow aging reaching death. What if the fires ignited by cave men are the flame of humanity that is slowly dying? Why dose humanity think that to destroy us there must be an epic apocalypse? Why do we think we are so special?