T. S. Eliot "The Hollow Men" P.1599


“We are the hollow men”
“We are the stuffed men”

It occurred to me while reading this piece that “we” could be any number of groups of people. Who is Eliot referring to, a religious group, the leaders of government, business giants, or maybe just the society as a whole? Does he include himself in this grouping? I think that this is also a poem we can all place our own empty souls into. Almost as if a checkpoint on life. Are “we” living a hollow existence? Or a gauge to measure others, are they really living a life or is there death among the living? In the first section of this poem Eliot talks about how the “dried voices…whispered together” I can see our modern day political rhetoric. Each candidate making the same meaningless promises, never coming to pass. In hearing these “dried voices” it does become blur barley recognizable one from the other and invoking about as much emotion as “rats feet over broken glass” would.

I really started looking at myself after reading this. How horrible would it be to become:

“Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion”

Though I often feel this pressure coming on, forces of society, conforming me to its set standard. I strive to be free from its grasp. Not set by rules or meaning, but an explorer of ideas, pulling them into me and pushing them out to everyone around me. I know this is inside me, and at times I am a solid from, bright and colorful, with fluid swift motion. What darkens my dreams, stops my progress and mutes my colors? The complexity we form around our lives, the day to day business we make, endless schedules, trying to be what we are ‘supposed to be‘. Silly things really like make the best cupcakes for the school bake sale, have the kids in music, sports, and art classes to be “well rounded”. This idea of a cookie cutter person, who is all he or she is ‘supposed to be’, these are the “we” who are hollow, dead among the living. Living without real purpose or passion. Letting all of those dreams inside burnout, only to be met again in “death’s dream kingdom” the place of sorrow and regret of a life never lived.

Washington -“Up From Slavery” P. 665-687
DeBois – “The Souls of Black Folk” P. 894-910


The way to Freedom

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This was the way to freedom as our Founding Fathers so said. This is the basic right for all who enter this life. Here in 2010 we still live in a world that this ideal has to be constantly strived for. A little more than a hundred and fifty years ago, a few years after the Emancipation Proclamation two leaders for the black race emerged. These men were great orators, well-educated, and very sensitive to the needs of his race. Booker T. Washington was a young boy when slavery ended, yet old enough to understand its effects, and old enough to remember life as a slave. On the other side W.E.B Du Bois grew up a freeman in the North. Still he felt the effects of being black in that day and age where race was a very large issue.

These men had the same purpose and passion; the betterment of an entire race, Washington works as a young boy, heavy labor, and horrible conditions. He wanted nothing more as a boy, than to read and write. His childhood is full of sacrifice but eventually he gets the opportunity to be educated. In this time he realizes how much of his race does not have this chance and they desire it more than anything. On page 676 Mr. Washington talks about how amazing it was to witness “A whole race trying to go to school….Few were too young and none too old to make the attempt to learn.” His focus through his life is that of compromise and humility. He wants to give his race opportunity where none existed before. That opportunity he feels however, needed to be handed out in small steps. He was building the ladder to freedom.

Du Bois becomes educated at Harvard, then at Berlin College, but though he is a published author and had many accomplishments as a graduate student, he cannot secure a position at a larger university. His youth seems to have been riddled with disappointment, slammed doors, and rough roads to success. This embitters him and through that embitterment he sees that the world wholly rejects the Negro and does not wish to stand equal with him. He becomes an enthusiastic activist for equal civil rights, right now!

These two different paths are opposed by each of these men one to another. Washington uses empathy, storytelling, humility and compromise to get accomplished the goal of growth and development within his race. Du Bois believes the only way this can be accomplished is through not compromising, never agreeing to be less than the men and women that this race is; equal, creative, and strong. Never backing down and degrading yourself to less than what you really are. I wonder which I would follow today, if it were my choice. I don’t believe it would take very long to decide.

Paul Laurence Dunbar- "An Ante-Bellum Sermon" P.1041

"We is gathahed hyeah, my brothahs, In dis howlin' wildaness, Fu' to speak some words of comfo't To each othah in distress."

This is the first few lines of the musical poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar. I just had to read this first line and felt pulled into to this sermon like song. I could picture myself sitting out in a clearing, high trees surrounding me blowing in the wind. Sitting upon a makeshift log bench for this Sunday enlightenment or better yet encouragement to begin. I feel the energy through the voice of this poet, the energy of the preacher trying to bring hope and peace to his followers. It gives the people a reason to feel justified in their affliction. Here the biblical story of Moses is told, the Hebrew son who was raised by the Egyptians and led the enslaved Hebrews to freedom. The poem gives this story life and relevance through the language of the African-American slave, the preacher relates the story back to the plight of his followers’ enslavement.

"An' yo' enemies may 'sail you
In de back an' in de front;
But de Lawd is all aroun' you,
Fu' to ba'de battle's brunt.
Dey kin fo'ge yo' chains an' shackles
F'om de mountains to de sea;
But de Lawd will sen' some Moses
Fu' to set his chillun free"

The lines here are very specific to the pain of the slave of the south, he talks about the whipping that most slaves experienced, in utter humiliation they were brought here in chains and shackles like animals on parade. The sorrow of the slaves existence is felt in the first four lines, but then the end of this stanza...oh how hopeful....how comforting! I can only imagine how tightly the slave would have had to cling to this thought. That someday, somehow, this hell that was their life would end, that redemption would come.

The end of this poem in the last line talks about that redemption: "When we 'se reco'nised ez citiz'-" the people would finally be treated as equals...citizens...people! I know that we have come far as a nation in giving that freedom of equality to many, but oh how much more work there is to do. I still see the pain of prejudice everywhere I go. We should remember this poem and remember how many have died in this name. From them we can learn equality and still believe in the hopeful message:

"So you see de Lawd's intention,
Evah sence de worl' began,
Was dat His almighty freedom
Should belong to evah man"

Whitman's "Song of Myself," p.30

In reading both the poems by Whitman I could not help but become mesmerized by the flow of his descriptive language. You could read the poem and stand on the streets with him, seeing, feeling and smelling all that he did. Whitman addresses this very thing, knowing his audience will be endless, will transcend time and space, and if he is successful will be transported to the very moment he is experiencing.

When Whitman writes "Song of Myself" we are transported into his very soul. Exposed to his wealth of knowledge and if we are willing, taught a lesson that could very well carry us through our lives. I believe that he gives us the gift of understanding the divine nature of life.

Whitman begins as existence would begin, with a desire for the earth, to live upon it, to "be mad for it to be in contact with me." He then goes on at the end of the second section to ask if we have really contemplated what everything means, what poetry means. Then he makes us a promise that if we focus on this poem we will understand the origin of all poems, that:

"You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on spectres in books, You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self."

With many of the stanzas of this poem we come to understand what Whitman felt about what this life really was, who we are, and where we are going. In section five he describes what sounds like an experience of having this knowledge confirmed to him through a divine experience. Then in section six he gifts us his realization of what grass really is. A question is posed, is it "the handkerchief of the lord", "A scented gift",” a child", or "a uniform hieroglyphic", "the beautiful uncut hair of graves", he finds from it hints of eternity "The smallest sprout shows there is really no death." I find it quite remarkable, that a man, who was an observer of all, came to understand lifes' greatest mysteries!

Inherent Thought

Write with effortless thought ~ Sing with words through pen

Scream time to end.

Feel pulse and beat~My mind goes deep

conscious

regained

I emanate