I think that these allusions can have several purposes. One idea is that these allusions as well as others could be being used as just another layer to show how the “hollowness” of men has been maintained throughout the ages-through different time periods, people groups, famous works and people…etc.
Elliot could also be showing us the utter disregard men have for the holiness of prayer and God, by grouping portions of the Lords prayer in with nursery rhymes.
What do you think of this poem as a whole? What about this portion?
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."
~The Hollow Men, Stanza V, by, T.S. Elliot
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