In our end is in our beginning…. I began this series on T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets with a piece entitled “Pause or Journey,” thinking about what the experience of Lent might be—either as a moment to pause and reflect more deeply on our faith and on one’s own physical, psychological, and spiritual states, or as … Continue reading Pilgrimage and Prayer in “Midwinter spring”: “Little Gidding” Movement 1
Author: davidnredman
“Water, water everywhere…”: Dry Salvages 2
“Dry Salvages” is Eliot’s “Water Quartet.” To the extent that the first two “Quartets” take place anywhere, they take place on land—often in a dry and barren land, sometimes in an equally barren and desolate urban landscape. But at the beginning of “The Dry Salvages,” landscape changes to riverscape and then to seascape. This is … Continue reading “Water, water everywhere…”: Dry Salvages 2
In medias res: East Coker 3
This is the middle movement of Eliot’s second quartet, “East Coker” and, as we know by now, Eliot is exquisitely aware of his—and our—present existence as being the midpoint between past and future. My fellow blogger John Timpane spoke of this when he wrote about the idea of Immanence in his post last week. This … Continue reading In medias res: East Coker 3
Pause or Journey: Burnt Norton 4
I count myself lucky in this first round of blogging on T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets” to be writing about the fourth section of the first poem in the series, “Burnt Norton.” Why? It’s the shortest section—just ten lines! But that’s not the only reason. In fact, the fourth sections of each of the “Four Quartets” … Continue reading Pause or Journey: Burnt Norton 4
