Shelley, Browning, Eliot and the Apocalypse; a look into how the end times are shaped

The poems “Ozymandias,” “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” and “The Hollow Men” are all apocalyptic depictions, and therefore reflect cultural and literary changes in the perception of the end of the world. Some of these are more obvious as apocalypse stories than others, but all share a depiction of the end of something, whether that be the world, or an empire.

Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias” has a less bleak, less horrible view of the end of the world than the other two poems here do. Although there is a hollow sense of loss, especially in the lines read from ruins, “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains” (1). Yes, there is mourning here. There is loss and destruction. But there is no horror. The very circumstances of the poem make the destruction inside it seem less. Someone is still there to tell stories. Someone is there to tell of “vast and trunkless legs of stone” (1). If this is an apocalypse, it is one long past. Yes, something has ended. Something large and powerful. Some empire with a “King of Kings” has ended. But it has been long gone. Long enough that this apocalyptic event is only felt in ruins and sand, not death or destruction or sickness. It is a calm post-apocalypse. This is not all that surprising, as Shelley belongs to the Romantics. And therefore, valued the beauty and destruction of nature. It then follows, that this apocalypse would be read through a less bleak lens, instead coming to rest softly, and with a “correct” feeling of finality.

Now, the apocalypse portrayed in “Ozymandias” is not the apocalypse the way many picture the end times. Not only is it peaceful, but it is long gone. It is an apocalypse the same way that the end of the Roman Empire would have been an apocalypse. The ending of an era. The end of a world superpower. If America were to fall today, and in a hundred years there’s nothing left but ruins, would we not consider that a sort of apocalypse? Although it may not be the end of the whole world, it is the end of ours. And doesn’t that count for something?

But the end times portrayed in “Ozymandias” aren’t really portrayed, are they? No, they aren’t. But the effects and ruins of those end times are. It is more of a post-apocalypse than one actively happening. Which gives it a sense of hope not present in the other poems here. Someone is left behind. More than one person has survived long enough for people to not know what happened. For stories to be told.

Where “Ozymandias” has a calm, quiet feeling, Robert Browning’s “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” is quite the opposite. Roland experiences a plethora of horrible, half-dead things. The world itself seems to be dying. The grass “grew as scant as hair in leprosy; thin dry blades pricked the mud Which underneath looked kneaded up with blood” (2). The livestock is half-blind and starving, looking grotesque enough that Roland thinks “he must be wicked to deserve such pain,” (2) and wonders if he’s even still alive. And yet, upon thinking of his past with his friends, Roland says “better this present” (2). How horrible would this world have to have been before it’s ending for an apocalypse to be more pleasant than everyday life.

This poem is from the Victorian era, which focuses on realism, and pragmatism where the Romantic are before it focused on the celebration of nature and beauty. Once again, a plague rages as this poem is being written. It is interesting to see how the prominent writing themes influence how end times are portrayed. Where Shelley embraced the apocalypse, Browning attacks it. He puts more emphasis on the horrible brutality in the end times, including plague and dead and the grotesque in his depiction. Shelley, on the other hand, doesn’t include any of this. Instead zooming out, to focus on the effect of the end of the world on things decades or centuries later. This illustrates the difference between the Romantic period and the Victorian period so well. Shelley, the Romantic, standing in awe of the impersonal peace the end times can bring, and Browning, the Victorian, standing in horror and railing against the personal minutia of destruction wrought by the end times.

And yet Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” stands in contrast to both Shelley’s and Browning’s depictions. A mix of resigned acceptance and existential dread at the prospect of being stuck as a lost soul. The hollow men themselves are these lost, wandering souls. Stuck forever between death and dreaming. Hollow, void of emotions. Not wanting to be remembered as anything other than empty.

This poem was written shortly after World War I, and it can reasonably be assumed that these hollow men represent both those who can back home from war, and those who didn’t. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder wasn’t called by that name in 1925, but it did still deeply affect many who went through war. It made these men feel like they were still at war, years after they came home. It made them feel lost.

One of the common side effects of PTSD is paranoia. Paranoia is a psychological condition in which an individual experiences delusion of persecution, everyone being “out to get them” or being constantly watched and observed. Eyes are a common theme in “The Hollow Men.” Eyes that watch and judge and never leave. Eyes that observe. These hollow men are being watched and judged and condemned through so much of the poem and then, “The eyes are not here There are no eyes here In this valley of dying stars In this hollow valley This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms” (3). There are no eyes in war. No eyes to judge mistakes or choices made in the line of duty. There are also no eyes in death. The men are finally free of judgement after they pass. After the world passes.

And the world does pass. “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” (3) but, the world does not end in fire and glory, as many would expect. It ends with a small sound. A whimper. We slip out of existence with nothing more than a pained sigh to our legacy. An exhalation. And isn’t that much better then in world wars and fire and bombs? Eliot’s apocalypse isn’t the quiet, impersonal, long past ruins of Shelley’s. Nor is it the painfully personal horrors of Browning’s end times. No, it is something else. Something personal that wishes to be impartial. And, in some ways, it is.

Eliot’s apocalypse sits in a strange place between impartiality and personal involvement. It is not a long past and far-removed experience to marvel at. And yet it’s also not a currently occurring firestorm of horrors. It is simply there. Everyone is experiencing the end of the world together, so it is impartial, but each person is undergoing their own apocalypse, so it is personal. And isn’t that just a fascinating post World War I capsule. Everyone is feeling together and connected socially and culturally. People are back home from war, and it feels safe. But at the same time, competition for jobs led to racial unrest and then to the race riots. Women were being forced back out of jobs and back into homes. And the first red scare is here. Hatred and suspicion and unrest are building. The world was saved form war, but it is still ending. Things are shifting, changing, and nothing feels certain. So, doesn’t it make sense that although the apocalypse comes for everyone together, it’s still different for all? Doesn’t it reflect how people were feeling when “The Hollow Men” was written? Does it not showcase the duality of community and isolation from the 1920s and 30s?

And what would an apocalypse poem contain today? We are still in the midst of a plague, are we not? World War III is on the cusp of breaking out. Global warming is getting worse by the day. There have been protests and riots and pleading for people to no longer get shot in the street. We say we are a community, and yet we are more isolated than every before. The Romantics held a long past apocalypse up to us, and said ‘Look! Look at this! The world will end but such is the nature of things. It will be alright, we will survive. Don’t worry about the end times, they have gone and past. Instead take in the beauty and awe of these past events.’ Then the Victorians, they pushed a bleaker apocalypse out toward us. They held up horrors and said ‘Look! Look at how the world ends. In blood and pain, and regret. Look at how personal the end times will be. Behold how you will struggle and suffer through, only to begin the whole journey again.’ After them, the Modernists came. They held aloft a post-world war depiction of the apocalypse and told us ‘This is what war does. This is how the world ends and then continues to spin until it cannot hold its pain in any longer. This is our manmade end and we cannot do anything but embrace it.’ So where does this leave us? What do all these poems say?

They say that our perception of the end of the world is vastly influenced by our tastes in art. They say that major world events dictate how we think we’ll die. They tell us that, no matter how the world ends, something will be there afterward. Even Browning, whose depiction is the bleakest here, still has us moving forward. He has Roland see and know “…all. And yet Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set, And blew. ``Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came’'' (2). He still moves forward. He endures. Shelley has the narrator hear of past apocalypse, of long fallen ruins, but it is told as a story. As proof that someone is still there to pass things on. Eliot, despite having the world end so solidly in his depiction, gives hints that peace might be achieved in the aftermath. That the world ending is not bloody or in a blaze of fire, but instead in a quiet exhale. A whimper, pained, but not screamed. Each of these poems provides some form of comfort. Some promise that it won’t be the horrible terrifying ordeal we believe it to be. We can take comfort in the apocalypse, because we have been told that something will endure. We will leave something behind. Our legacy will stand. We will not fade away will nothing to be remembered by. And that is a comfort that many people could use.

(2) “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came by Robert Browning.” By Robert Browning - Famous Poems, Famous Poets. - All Poetry, https://allpoetry.com/Childe-Roland-To-The-Dark-Tower-Came.

(3) “The Hollow Men by T S Eliot.” By T S Eliot - Famous Poems, Famous Poets. - All Poetry,https://allpoetry.com/the-hollow-men.

(1) Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias.