The Hollow Men part V -- Poetry Response #6

In general, "The Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot is a very interesting and slightly chilling poem. My favorite part is the last part. Eliot uses a variation of a nursery rhyme to start the section. The image I get is of someone standing is some barren place. There is no one else around, but there is this song playing, probably from some child's abandoned toy. It sings, “Here we go round the prickly pear / Prickly pear prickly pear / Here we go round the prickly pear / At five o’clock in the morning.” It seems like the nursery rhyme, something that usually represents innocence and happiness, is mocking whoever is listening to it, reminding them of what used to be. The way that Eliot writes the whole last section reminds me of a song. I can almost hear a minor tune in a guitar, maybe a little drum set, something a punk band might play. The words all carry the same idea; they all lead to the Shadow. I think the shadow refers to the fact that underneath everything is nothing, that we have created our own reality that is just an illusion. He adds the phrase “For Thine is the Kingdom” between the chunks referring to shadow. He places them between the chunks, just like the shadows. The phrase is part of the Lord’s Prayer which represents Christianity. I think he’s saying that religion is one of the realities we create.