The Hollow Men

Eyes are mentioned numerous times throughout the poem. In some cases, it is left ambiguous as to whether there are many pairs of eyes or only one. The first reference is at the end of the first canto when the speaker says, “Those who have crossed / With direct eyes” (Lines 13-14). This suggests that people who cross over to their respective afterlives are looking straight ahead, rather than to the past or looking away in fear. By doing this, they become worthy of a fate that is out of reach to the hollow men. In the next canto, the speaker becomes more aware of the eyes around them, reflecting on the penetrating eyes that haunt their thoughts:

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams

In death’s dream kingdom

These do not appear:

There, the eyes are

Sunlight on a broken column (Lines 19-23).

The punctuation intentionally leaves some of the content ambiguous; the eyes may be in “death’s dream kingdom” (Line 20) waiting for them, yet are not appearing in that moment. Alternatively, the eyes may be ones that the speaker encounters in their dreams, but that do not appear in the kingdom of death; there, different, kinder eyes are present and waiting for those who cross over.