The imagery depicted in T.S. Eliot"s poem "The Hollow Men" evokes a sense of desolate hopelessness and lends to Eliot"s generally cynical view of civilization during this period in history. A reaction of deep and profound disappointment in mankind around him is made evident in this stark work, first published in 1925. In this short piece, Eliot enumerates several deep faults he finds in his fellowman, including hypocrisy, apathy and indifference, and leaves the reader with a feeling of overwhelming emptiness. An important feature of this poem is the fact that the narration of the poem is in first person....

The somewhat macabre concluding stanza echoes the "mulberry bush" song from earlier, this time with an even darker tone. Again the reader is confronted 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 himself to slowly decay and degrade to the point of oblivion.