| I |
|
| We are the hollow
men |
|
| We are the stuffed
men |
|
| Leaning together |
|
| Headpiece
filled with straw. Alas! |
|
| Our dried voices, when |
5
|
| We whisper
together |
|
| Are quiet and meaningless |
|
| As wind in dry grass |
|
| Or rats' feet over broken glass |
10
|
| 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 -
if at all - not as lost |
15
|
| Violent souls, but only |
|
| As the hollow men |
|
| The stuffed men. |
|
| II |
|
| Eyes
I dare not meet in dreams |
|
| In
death's dream kingdom |
20
|
| These
do not appear: |
|
| There,
the eyes are |
|
| Sunlight
on a broken
column |
|
| There,
is a tree
swinging |
|
| And
voices are |
25
|
| In
the wind's singing |
|
| More
distant and more solemn |
|
| Than
a fading star. |
|
| Let me be no nearer |
|
| In death's dream kingdom |
30
|
| Let me also wear |
|
| Such deliberate
disguises |
|
| Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves |
|
| In a field |
|
| Behaving
as the wind behaves |
35
|
| No nearer - |
|
| Not
that final meeting |
|
| In
the twilight kingdom |
|
| III |
|
| This
is the dead land |
|
| This
is cactus land |
40
|
| Here
the stone images |
|
| Are
raised, here they receive |
|
| The
supplication of a dead man's hand |
|
| Under
the twinkle of a fading star. |
|
| Is it like this |
45
|
| In death's other kingdom |
|
| Waking
alone |
|
| At the hour when we are |
|
| Trembling
with tenderness |
|
| Lips
that would kiss |
50
|
| Form
prayers to broken stone. |
|
| IV |
|
| The
eyes are not here |
|
| There
are no eyes here |
|
| In
this valley of dying stars |
|
| In
this hollow valley |
55
|
| This broken
jaw of our lost kingdoms |
|
| In
this last of meeting places |
|
| We
grope together |
|
| And
avoid speech |
|
| Gathered
on this beach of the tumid
river |
60
|
| Sightless,
unless |
|
| The
eyes reappear |
|
| As
the perpetual star |
|
| Multifoliate
rose |
|
| Of death's twilight
kingdom |
65
|
| The hope only |
|
| Of empty men. |
|
| V |
|
| Here
we go round the prickly pear |
|
| Prickly
pear prickly pear |
|
| Here
we go round the prickly pear |
70
|
| At
five o'clock in the morning. |
|
| Between
the idea |
|
| And
the reality |
|
| Between
the motion |
|
| And
the act |
75
|
| Falls the
Shadow |
|
| For
Thine is the Kingdom |
|
| Between the conception |
|
| And the creation |
|
| Between the emotion |
80
|
| And the response |
|
| Falls the Shadow |
|
| Life
is very long |
|
| Between the desire |
|
| And the spasm |
85
|
| Between
the potency |
|
| And
the existence |
|
| Between
the essence |
|
| And
the descent |
|
| Falls the Shadow |
90
|
| For
Thine is the Kingdom |
|
| For Thine is |
|
| Life is |
|
| For Thine is the |
|
| This
is the way the world ends |
95
|
| This
is the way the world ends |
|
| This
is the way the world ends |
|
| Not
with a bang but a whimper.
|
|