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hyperhello
The Hollow Men is from 1925. Try to read it like a beatnik poet, world-weary and confident, with finger snaps and bongo drums or a jazz orchestra in the background. Eliot was a fascinating fellow traveler person. My favorite site for his poems is here: https://mypoeticside.com/poets/t-s-eliot-poems
lemonberry
I find conjuring my inner Maynard G. Krebs helps a lot.
multjoy
He was also a virulent anti-semite
bryanrasmussen
The beatniks were most active in the 50s, maybe as early as the mid 40s, but definitely not 1925.
danans
Though their genres and styles were completely different, the timing of his work, its reflections on the trauma of WW1, and then his conversion to conservative Catholicism reminds me more of Tolkien.
halJordan
There are recordings of TS Eliot reading this poem. So while we should imagine your desired reading for its own worth, a "beatnik" reading shouldn't be implied as the original reading
zabzonk
For those interested in Eliot, the BBC has a lot of stuff (criticism, recordings, etc.) in various places. Just search for "bbc ts eliot".
every
This is the poem I used for speech contests in high school...