As a result, he entitled the central movement “a song of thanksgiving ... offered to the divinity by a convalescent”, and the second section of this movement bears the inscription: “Feeling new strength.” Over 100 years later, in March 1931, TS Eliot, aged 47, wrote to Stephen Spender: “I have the A minor Quartet on the gramophone, and I find it quite inexhaustible to study. You likely recall the two modes in “The Hollow Men,” but if not, here it is in the final section of the poem with the chorus singing the italicized sections and the “spokesman” of the hollow men continuing his musings from earlier in the poem: The hollow men, though they recognize that their life is meaningless, are afraid of the final crossing “With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom.” Not daring to meet the “eyes” of reality, they prefer at first to come “No nearer” to the divine light and to wear their “deliberate disguises.” In their present state of hesitation, they would remain in the spiritually sterile “cactus land.” But in this “hollow valley” there can be no hope unless they will empty themselves of everything that stands in the way of seeing the divine reality.
Author: Micah Mattix
Published at: 2025-08-09 20:48:00
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