The Hollow Men by T. S. Elliot I We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion; Those who have crossed With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom Remember us …showed first 75 words of 1383 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1383 total…with the image of children, their playfulness and hopefulness, juxtaposed with the image of the death of not only men but of the entire world. Here Eliot plainly states a grim warning or perhaps prophecy about the path he sees his world taking. He sees it all coming to an end not in some apocalyptic catastrophe, as in the Bible, but through mankind allowing him to slowly decay and degrade to the point of oblivion.