Collected Poems, 1909–1935

1936

Brasch PS3509 L43 A17 1936

London: Faber and Faber

In Canto III of the Inferno, Dante describes the dark and desolate plain which lies between Hell’s gate and the river Acheron. Upon this plain, the souls of the damned tumultuously wail and cry and futilely chase after a whirling banner; having lived lives devoid of spiritual meaning, they cannot cross into death’s true realms. Drawn from Dante and reflecting the spiritual emptiness of modern existence, Eliot’s hollow men gather in ‘the dead land’ beside the river but cannot cross into ‘death’s other kingdom.’