{
 "id": "t-s-eliot/the-hollow-men",
 "title": "The Hollow Men",
 "poet": "T. S. Eliot",
 "poet_slug": "t-s-eliot",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Hollow Men",
 "book_slug": "the-hollow-men",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 1,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1925,
  "venue": "The Hollow Men (1925)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poems19091925030616mbp"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/t-s-eliot_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009592742",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1321",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001835100",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100218549",
   "https://archive.org/details/poems19091925030616mbp",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedpoems1900elio",
   "https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20200705",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemswritteninea00elio",
   "https://theworld.com/~raparker/exploring/tseliot/works/poems/eliot-harvard-poems.html"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 98,
  "n_stanzas": 16,
  "n_parts": 5,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
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 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
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  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    8,
    11
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "We are the hollow men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We are the stuffed men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaning together",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our dried voices, when",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We whisper together",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are quiet and meaningless",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As wind in dry grass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or rats’ feet over broken glass",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In our dry cellar",
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   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shape without form, shade without colour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Paralysed force, gesture without motion;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Those who have crossed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Remember us⁠—if at all⁠—not as lost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Violent souls, but only",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the hollow men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stuffed men.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Eyes I dare not meet in dreams",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In death’s dream kingdom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These do not appear:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There, the eyes are",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sunlight on a broken column",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There, is a tree swinging",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And voices are",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the wind’s singing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More distant and more solemn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than a fading star.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Let me be no nearer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In death’s dream kingdom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let me also wear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such deliberate disguises",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a field",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Behaving as the wind behaves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No nearer⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not that final meeting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the twilight kingdom",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This is the dead land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is cactus land",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here the stone images",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are raised, here they receive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The supplication of a dead man’s hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the twinkle of a fading star.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Is it like this",
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   },
   {
    "text": "In death’s other kingdom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waking alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the hour when we are",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trembling with tenderness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lips that would kiss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Form prayers to broken stone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The eyes are not here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There are no eyes here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In this valley of dying stars",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In this hollow valley",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In this last of meeting places",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We grope together",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And avoid speech",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gathered on this beach of the tumid river",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sightless, unless",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The eyes reappear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the perpetual star",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Multifoliate rose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of death’s twilight kingdom",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hope only",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of empty men.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here we go round the prickly pear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prickly pear prickly pear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here we go round the prickly pear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At five o’clock in the morning.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Between the idea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the reality",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between the motion",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the act",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Falls the Shadow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Thine is the Kingdom",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Between the conception",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the creation",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between the emotion",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the response",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Falls the Shadow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life is very long",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Between the desire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the spasm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between the potency",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the existence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between the essence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the descent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Falls the Shadow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Thine is the Kingdom",
    "indent": 0,
    "align": "right"
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For Thine is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For Thine is the",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is the way the world ends",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is the way the world ends",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This is the way the world ends",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not with a bang but a whimper.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}