kathryn Tippetts

The Hollow Men By T.S Elliot

“That is the way the world ends/ not with a bang but with a whimper.” This is the ending of T.S Elliot’s poem, The Hollow Men. It’s funny. This poem only goes out with a whimper in the very literal sense that it is what’s written on the page. This poem goes out with a bang because of the feelings of overwhelming sadness it leaves behind, and that is what makes this line all the more depressing. It is the world that is going out with a whimper, a small sound of complaint not to be remembered or given any credence, and you realize that the world will go out like this because you will go out like this.