alt Hacker NewsThe Hollow Men is from 1925. Try to read it like a beatnik poet, world-weary and confident, with finger snaps and bongo drums or a jazz orchestra in the background. Eliot was a fascinating fellow traveler person. My favorite site for his poems is here: https://mypoeticside.com/poets/t-s-eliot-poems
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I find conjuring my inner Maynard G. Krebs helps a lot.
Though their genres and styles were completely different, the timing of his work, its reflections on the trauma of WW1, and then his conversion to conservative Catholicism reminds me more of Tolkien.
There are recordings of TS Eliot reading this poem. So while we should imagine your desired reading for its own worth, a "beatnik" reading shouldn't be implied as the original reading
The beatniks were most active in the 50s, maybe as early as the mid 40s, but definitely not 1925.
I recommend the same thing for the actual beatniks themselves like Kerouac. You have to read it like spoken poetry, not merely written. This song uses lines from one of his stories and when set to music it fits perfectly.
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdf...
https://youtu.be/CMMBP19ma60?si=lB6gzWBtaZp2f_Oy