Eliot's "The Hollow Men"

Today with started with some discussion of Waiting for Godot and then moved on to the assignment below.


Read T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men" and do the following:

1. ANNOTATE the poem. Mark features that stand out (e.g. repetition, rhyme, stanzification, alliteration, consonance, enjambment, syllables, figurative language, etc.), note difficult words or lines, indicate questions or comments, etc.
2. SUMMARIZE the poem in a sentence or two. Look up words and allusions if needed.
3. Explain the TONE of the poem in a sentence or two. Use our list of tone words if you’d like.
4. Explain the THEME of the poem in a sentence or two.
5. Carefully answer the questions below. Refer to your work above and quote the poem where appropriate to support your responses.

• How does Eliot show the emptiness of the person(s) in the poem? What images does he use to suggest emptiness?
• What is Eliot's statement about life in this poem? How valid is his statement for today's world?
• What other aspects of the poem stand out (think structure, figurative language, etc)? How? Why? To what effect?