The Hollow Men evokes a sense of desolate hopelessness, T.S Eliot (the author) generally had a cynical view of civilization. A deep and profound disappointment in mankind around him is made evident in this poem. Eliot identifies several deep faults he finds in man including hypocrisy, apathy, and indifference. The author uses a pessimistic and sad emotional point of view. In the beginning of the poem, Eliot creates a world of desolation. The theme of this poem is dread, a big image of this is eyes. Eliot states that the eyes are "eyes I dare not meet in dreams", indicating that this narrator fears addressing death, either his own or those who have "crossed." Eliot calls for an opening of eyes and the ending of apathy and indifference to these deaths. The idea of being afraid to face death and feeling guilt over the deceased contributes to the explanation of Eliot's "hollow men" description. Besides being afraid to face the eyes of the dead the narrator also expresses a desire to hide from death itself. When he wishes to "wear such deliberate disguises..." we realize that the hollowness is a disguise to fool death into going somewhere else. The altering of the poem "Here we go round the mulberry bush" replaces the sweet mulberry bush with the prickly pear cactus. This strange song comes as a relief from the desolate tone of the poem. The presence of the cactus instead of the familiar mulberry keeps the reader in Eliot's world of bareness. This is a reminder that innocent children still live and play and we must take responsibility for the world that they are born into. The bits of the Lord's Prayer scattered throughout the last stanza is used as a reminder that we must own up to our sins. The phrase "Life is very long" when used as a counterpoint to the Prayer seems to be the voice of humans, the hollow men, trying to make excuses for not always being good. The ...