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Four Quartets
by
T.S. Eliot
The last major verse written by Nobel laureate T. S. Eliot, considered by Eliot himself to be his finest work Four Quartets is a rich composition that expands the spiritual vision introduced in “The Waste Land.” Here, in four linked poems (“Burnt Norton,” “East Coker,” “The Dry Salvages,” and “Little Gidding”), spiritual, philosophical, and personal themes emerge through...more
Paperback, 64 pages
Published
March 20th 1968
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(first published 1943)
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This is something that I've been reading and returning to for more than 40 years. Few works are so intimately connected with my own life changes. Truly, all poems are read afresh with each reading: as oneself changes, the poems change. In the case of Four Quartets, I used to go o it for melancholy comfort, a vague spiritual longing too balmed with its reverberations of paradox and eastern thoughts while rooted in the soil of an East Anglian mysticism. I also found its original influence (along w...more
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Four Quartets is one of the most astounding pieces of writing I've ever encountered. It may start off strange and esoteric, but it becomes more and more familiar through the reading, until you feel almost as if you are experiencing Eliot's journeys and musings instead of reading a poetic result of them. It builds upon itself in the most transparent yet masterful ways. An incredible experience for me as a writer and a thinker.
I am consistently impressed with Eliot's use of language. My goodness, does the man know how to write a poem. While I'm not a huge fan of all the Anglican imagery, I was absolutely floored by at least one passage in each of the large sections. Eliot displays some incredible poetic craftsmanship, which was especially evident to me in The Dry Salvages, but was obviously present throughout the work. There is no doubt that Eliot is a master craftsman. I absolutely loved the way that images and phras...more
John Wiswell
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Poetry readers, philosophy readers, classics readers, spiritual readers
I'm not a fan of poetry, but this dug deeply into me. For me, most poetry is borderline nonsense, overwritten or waters that have been muddied for the illusion (though I guess someone thinks that's the way of all Literature). Some poets cut right through my biases, though, and I was happy to find T.S. Eliot was one of them.
These Quartets are highly interested in time. Everything seems to relate back to time; memory, love, evolution, history, gods, the past of time, the future of time...more
These Quartets are highly interested in time. Everything seems to relate back to time; memory, love, evolution, history, gods, the past of time, the future of time...more
Whatever possessed me? Perhaps because I'm teaching The Waste Land this spring (again). . . Eliot requires a mental wrench for me: oh yes, imagine oneself a man, an ex-pat, etc, and perhaps most crucially, imagine oneself not in on certain joys of the bodily life. Eliot strikes me as a man into wrenching--wrenching himself to and away from this and that. So, anyway, a certain distance intrudes, it's hard to take his writing as having direct application--which is not to deny the craft or the inte...more
Question 1 (5 points)
Contrast the treatment of denotation and reference in the following works:
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations
- T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
- Marcel Proust, A L'Ombre Des Jeunes Filles En Fleurs
Well, that's what I think's wrong with formal examinations.
_______________________________________
(Gratuitous cross-promotion)
Question 2 (3 points)
Order the following by the ext...more
Contrast the treatment of denotation and reference in the following works:
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations
- T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
- Marcel Proust, A L'Ombre Des Jeunes Filles En Fleurs
Well, that's what I think's wrong with formal examinations.
_______________________________________
(Gratuitous cross-promotion)
Question 2 (3 points)
Order the following by the ext...more
This is a lifelong (or at least adult-lifelong) favorite of mine. I return to it every year or so. One of the great poetic reveries on Christianity and on the nature of eternity, immortality, and ethical purpose. As a nonbeliever, I find these four poems convincing and intelligent as regards one particular religion. As a transient sapient being in a boundless universe, I find them breathtaking in their attempt to pierce through the here and now into the transcendant and timeless. That ability to...more
This quartet of longer poems is Eliot's very best and most provoking poetry. He has become a sort of Modernist monster over the years, but forget Prufrock and read this. His allusion to Beethoven's Four Quartets is apt. Eliot did not publish anymore poetry after this text, and Beethoven's quartet with four movements was his last finished work. Listen to the Beethoven quartet. Read Taking the Quantum Leap. Read about Sanskrit and Hinduism as well, appreciate this intricately layered poem even...more
TS Eliot's Four Quartets was a drastic departure from the modernism he helped to create and the style that made him one of the most famous poets of the 20th century, away from the nihilist metaphysics immortalized in The Wasteland toward something earthier, more realistic, grounded in the King James Bible of his youth. In four long poems of five parts each, Eliot humanizes his towering voice, turning from the surfeit data of his earlier work to such subjects as nature, time, death and war; the r...more
T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets is a masterpiece. I don't know how I missed it before this year. How can you not love a poem that says things like:
There is, it seems to us,
At best, only a limited value
In the knowledge derived from experience.
The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies,
For the pattern is new in every moment
And every moment is a new and shocking
Valuation of all we have been....
Do not let me hear
Of the wisdom of old men, but rather ...more
There is, it seems to us,
At best, only a limited value
In the knowledge derived from experience.
The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies,
For the pattern is new in every moment
And every moment is a new and shocking
Valuation of all we have been....
Do not let me hear
Of the wisdom of old men, but rather ...more
T.S. Eliot has always presented a problem for poets. His ability to insert the most esoteric thoughts into colloquial phrasing tricks many folks into thinking that they can do what the master does. How many poets have been spawned by the false simplicity of Prufrock or the seemingly careless collage of the Wasteland? But, lacking the prophet's insight or the preacher's humility, the fail almost universally to match Eliot's art.
Here, in the four quarters, Eliot finally puts aside h...more
Here, in the four quarters, Eliot finally puts aside h...more
Mary
added it
........................ In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know ...more
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know ...more
Bpatoosk
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Recommends it for:
everyone
Shelves:
brilliance,
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If I had to chose only 3 books to carry with me for the rest of my life - this would (without a doubt) be one of them. I had started with the Wasteland and Prufrock the year before, so I had a little Eliot experience before reading it - nevertheless the endless allusions/half-thoughts/references daunted me at first. Don't be daunted. Know that it will require more than one reading. Sit down and read it once all the way through - don't worry about getting any particular meanings - just read i...more
Christopher
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Recommends it for:
Everyone with a good head on their shoulders.
My favorite poem(s) in the (modern) English language. A spiritual affirmation of the highest order, and a literary accomplishment of the greatest kind.
For me, it feels like an unconscious answer to THE WASTELAND; a beautiful refutation of despair that never for a moment ignores the suffering inherant in the human condition.
Eliot's "farewell to poetry" (as Frank Kermode called it) is also his finest poetic achievement.
For me, it feels like an unconscious answer to THE WASTELAND; a beautiful refutation of despair that never for a moment ignores the suffering inherant in the human condition.
Eliot's "farewell to poetry" (as Frank Kermode called it) is also his finest poetic achievement.
My first experience of Eliot's interlinked poems was through an old vinyl recording of Alec Guinness reading them. Although I was all of seventeen, and understood little of what was being said, the impact upon me was huge. I knew that some of the poems were written during the Second World War and that they were steeped in Christian mysticism, and so set out to learn more about them.
I have now lived for thirty years with these poems, committed whole swathes of them to memory, and studi...more
I have now lived for thirty years with these poems, committed whole swathes of them to memory, and studi...more
So this is my second time through this. The first time, I came away scratching my head. This time, I'm convinced that it is, without exaggeration, better than Eliot's The Waste Land, which, for a while, was being described as the seminal poetic work of the century. It's good.
Anyway, I know I'm biased because of the whole christianity thing, but I think almost everyone is a fan of intelligibility and coherency, both of which I feel The Waste Land lack, but this exhibits in spades, if one a...more
Anyway, I know I'm biased because of the whole christianity thing, but I think almost everyone is a fan of intelligibility and coherency, both of which I feel The Waste Land lack, but this exhibits in spades, if one a...more
Admitting that I read T.S. Eliot is like introducing you to my crazy great-uncle. I know he's going to embarrass me. He’s often a pompous ass when you take him out in public; he's never met a literary allusion he didn't like, and he positively pants after philosophical conceits. He filters everything through a religious perspective, which he tends to assume you share. Worst of all, he's a bigot--sometimes a subtle one, sometimes a shockingly unsubtle one.
And yet I love him, and still...more
And yet I love him, and still...more
If you read this to yourself out loud and slowly, it will echo in your head the rest of your life. I think it will last forever.
I don't understand it, but I love it. I think that may be part of the point.
I'm not a poetry man. Most poetry just leaves me cold. Little splinters of nothing very much, and an aggravating sense of its own importance. Also very poor value for money: you don't get much for your shilling. Four Quartets, though, is quite different. If anyone asked me what it was about, I would say it is about this particular set of words in this order, nothing more or less. It demands to be read aloud (I am currently attempting to memorise it for this purpose) and is magical, incantatory, ...more
Extraordinary, wonderful poetry: multi-layered, sensual, complex.
I like Eliot's poetry, I mean, I like how it sounds, but sometimes I have trouble understanding it. Hunter and I read these together (well it was for our book club except that we weren't around to actually go so we read and discussed them together) and really took some time picking apart the meanings of them. He has lots of references to events and other works. East Coker was I think my favorite but I'm not even sure I can say why. It takes a different kind of mind than mine to really grasp ...more
Prāta mūzika no paša sākuma (“Time present and time past/Are both perhaps present in time future,/And time future contained in time past.”) viscaur dzejolim (“The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies,/For the pattern is new in every moment”) līdz pat beigām (“We shall not cease from exploration/And the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time.”). Superspēcīgs, pārņemošs izbrauciens laika vēsturē un nākotnē, kas sajauc tev galvu un at...more
These four poems from T.S. Eliot are very complex modern pieces, but they're so lovely, they can be appreciated even if we're not getting the full meaning. Time and redemption are the big themes of the quartets, and each of them is centered in a single location the poet had visited. They also roughly correspond to one of the four elements: "Burnt Norton" (air), "East Coker" (earth), "The Dry Salvages" (water) and "Little Gidding" (fire). Each contains five...more
Patrick Gibson
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
those who doubt the joy of humanity
Shelves:
poetry
I know you can download and print this set of poems, or read them on your computer screen but it is so satisfying to hold this beautifully designed book in your hands as Elliot’s words pierce your soul. In this case the tactile goes well with the ephemeral. If ‘The Wasteland’ is the penultimate Elliot, the ‘Quartets’ arrive a close second.
You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arriv...more
You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arriv...more
Eliot finishes his public writing career with this collection, twenty years after The Waste Land. The poem concentrates on religion chiefly and the subsequent consideration of things such as time and generally the vicissitudes of life. As all religious poetry inevitably must, this collection relies heavily upon paradox and Eliot is constantly setting up paradoxical syllogisms such as "In order to arrive at what you do not know / You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance. / In order...more
I return to this long poem time and time again, each phase of life bringing new discoveries in the wisdom of this poetry. I hear echoes of it in my head while hiking ("the way up is the way down"); meditating("Distracted from distraction by distraction"); grieving ("that which is only living/Can only die"); writing ("Words strain,/Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,/Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,/Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,...more
This series of poetic meditations covers an incredible amount of territory in its few pages.
The sequence begins with a wondering of time -- Time Present, Time Past, and Time Future -- and what it might mean if all time is "eternally present."
Each passage leads to new questions and understanding. This is very much a voyage of the mind, heart, and soul.
At one point, a student encounters an old teacher, wanting to learn more. The student is told those thing...more
The sequence begins with a wondering of time -- Time Present, Time Past, and Time Future -- and what it might mean if all time is "eternally present."
Each passage leads to new questions and understanding. This is very much a voyage of the mind, heart, and soul.
At one point, a student encounters an old teacher, wanting to learn more. The student is told those thing...more
My favorite of all Eliot's work. IMHO, the best cycle of poems in the 20th century bar none. All the major themes of poetry are covered: Love, Death, Nature and God. The meeting of Eastern and Western philosophies adds great power to the primarily Christian underpinning. And the existential angst of the times is also well described. Each time I read them another small revelation occurs. If desert island books were limited by words equal to this piece, this would be my desert island book.
My most dog-eared, annotated, carried-with-me book of poetry. It repays careful reading and scholarly analysis, but passages also just jump out with an immediate power of their own. And parts come echoing back to me at odd moments: "midwinter spring is its own season, sempiturnal though sodden towards sundown," or "Other echoes Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?' And "All will be well, and all will be well, when the fire and the rose are one."
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
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| T.S. Eliot International Summer School, 10-17 July 2010, London | 1 | 8 | May 26, 2010 04:42am |
Thomas Stearns Eliot was a poet, dramatist and literary critic. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry." He wrote the poems The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday, and Four Quartets; the plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party; and the essay Tradition and t...more
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“We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.”
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“Humankind cannot bear very much reality”
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