The Hollow Men

“The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot (1922)

The most famous of T.S. Eliot’s poems also draws heavily from his experiences in World War I. This poem was published shortly before the release of “The Hollow Men,” by which time Eliot’s narrative voice had been established and celebrated.

“Inferno” Canto III, by Dante Alighieri (c. 1300)

Although this poem predates Eliot by several centuries, it had a marked influence on his work; “The Hollow Men” and other poems contain several literary allusions to Dante’s masterpiece, The Divine Comedy.

“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen (1920)

A great body of work has been created on the effects of World War I. This posthumous poem by Wilfred Owen takes a visceral approach to the aftermath of war, sharing similar language and tones to “The Hollow Men.”

“‘The Heart of Darkness’ in T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Hollow Men’” by Daniel J. McConnell (1962)

This article explores the relationship between “The Hollow Men” and the novel Heart of Darkness, as characterized by the opening epigraph, and the way aspects of the novel are woven through the poem.

“The Apocalyptic Vision in Modernist and Romantic Poetry: A Comparative Study between T.