this is the way the world ends/not with a bang but a whimper

Posted over 5 years ago
first i want to say thanks to everyone that commented before. i want to thank you each individually and plan to but school has been hectic.feeling sad and lonely tonight.so i felt i would post real quick with a poem, one that always does well when im down.The Hollow MenT.S. EliotIWe are the hollow menWe are the stuffed menLeaning togetherHeadpiece filled with straw. Alas!Our dried voices, whenWe whisper togetherAre quiet and meaninglessAs wind in dry grassOr rats' feet over broken glassIn our dry cellarShape without form, shade without colour,Paralysed force, gesture without motion;Those who have crossedWith direct eyes, to death's other KingdomRemember us -- if at all -- not as lostViolent souls, but onlyAs the hollow menThe stuffed men.IIEyes I dare not meet in dreamsIn death's dream kingdomThese do not appear:There, the eyes areSunlight on a broken columnThere, is a tree swingingAnd voices areIn the wind's singingMore distant and more solemnThan a fading star.Let me be no nearerIn death's dream kingdomLet me also wearSuch deliberate disguisesRat's coat, crowskin, crossed stavesIn a fieldBehaving as the wind behavesNo nearer --Not that final meetingIn the twilight kingdomIIIThis is the dead landThis is cactus landHere the stone imagesAre raised, here they receiveThe supplication of a dead man's handUnder the twinkle of a fading star.Is it like thisIn death's other kingdomWaking aloneAt the hour when we areTrembling with tendernessLips that would kissForm prayers to broken stone.IVThe eyes are not hereThere are no eyes hereIn this valley of dying starsIn this hollow valleyThis broken jaw of our lost kingdomsIn this last of meeting placesWe grope togetherAnd avoid speechGathered on this beach of the tumid riverSightless, unlessThe eyes reappearAs the perpetual starMultifoliate roseOf death's twilight kingdomThe hope onlyOf empty men.V Here we go round the prickly pearPrickly pear prickly pearHere we go round the prickly pearAt five o'clock in the morning.Between the ideaAnd the realityBetween the motionAnd the actFalls the Shadow For Thine is the KingdomBetween the conceptionAnd the creationBetween the emotionAnd the responseFalls the ShadowLife is very longBetween the desireAnd the spasmBetween the potencyAnd the existenceBetween the essenceAnd the descentFalls the ShadowFor Thine is the KingdomFor Thine isLife isFor Thine is theThis is the way the world endsThis is the way the world endsThis is the way the world endsNot with a bang but a whimper.my god i love the way that closes.

Comments (6)

  1. B42 says T.S. Eliot Rocks, in a bluesy sorta way.... Mog On!
    Permalink posted 09/24/2006
  2. ivylander says And they say Penn State's just a party school....
    Permalink posted 09/24/2006
  3. Anna says You are welcome :)
    Permalink posted 09/24/2006
  4. Kid Charming says My college library had an album of Eliot reading some of his works. I know it would've been the wrong thing to do, but I occasionally wish I'd stolen it (or at least recorded it). I remember his whole reading of section V was pretty interesting, in that he didn't seem to try to play up the weight or intensity the way one may be tempted to. It was a comparatively "light" reading, yet the final lines arrive with an inevitability that was quite powerful. Excellent poem.
    Permalink posted 09/24/2006
  5. lemontwist says Cool poem. I'm a sucker for good poetry, but I haven't really read any in a long time. Perhaps I should!
    Permalink posted 09/24/2006
  6. maryisbusy says EMF! ;)
    Permalink posted 09/24/2006

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