“The Hollow Men” at 100

I recommend the same thing for the actual beatniks themselves like Kerouac. You have to read it like spoken poetry, not merely written. This song uses lines from one of his stories and when set to music it fits perfectly.

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdf...

https://youtu.be/CMMBP19ma60?si=lB6gzWBtaZp2f_Oy

I find conjuring my inner Maynard G. Krebs helps a lot.

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.

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

The beatniks were most active in the 50s, maybe as early as the mid 40s, but definitely not 1925.

He was also a virulent anti-semite

I was going to respond saying how much I dislike the way the narrator reads the poem - like a vicar 45 minutes into an overlong Sunday sermon, as bored as the congregation - then I saw the OP article included a link to Eliot reading his own poem. And that one sounds like the vicar now entering the third hour of his overlong Sunday sermon. So I have to agree: your favourite reading is the better reading of the poem.