We are the Hollow men, after all

Well, well, T S Eliot has been named the nation's favourite poet in a BBC poll. The news report on it, however, said it was unclear whether this was because people loved The Waste Land or Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (the inspiration for the long-running musical)!

It's a problem with a poet of such breadth and development, I guess. I have to confess that I've never read Possum. but I do read Ash Wednesday (baffling but beautiful), The Waste Land and Four Quartets fairly frequently.

And The Hollow Men always resonates:

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