The Four Quartets, Explained by Thomas Howard
Reviewed by Kristen West McGuire
T.S. Eliot reminds us of what we do not know. And perhaps much we had forgotten. Even, things we did know, if only because they were written on our hearts.
For this review, however, I’ll start with what I do not know. Because I am guessing you are with me, dear reader. My American education is recent enough that I missed a lot. And even though I’ve been to London, my geography of England is, well, sketchy at best. (It’s an island, right?)
We aren’t ready to read Eliot’s masterpiece without the patient, passionate guidance of a friend who loves Eliot. Thomas Howard’s book, Dove Descending, still sent me fumbling for a dictionary, puzzled by a few rarified words that make Eliot opaque. But, he is so earnest, we’ll forgive him.
Cover your desk with the poem, the teaching book on the poem, a dictionary and perhaps a Bible. This poem is worth the effort.
Burnt Norton
“Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.”
Apparently named for a burned down manor house, the first of the quartets points to the tension of being alive. Though we are created for Eternal Joy, we find ourselves here in lives that pay lip service to a million distractions. Guess who the one End might be? But not yet, for Eliot has more to say on this topic.
East Coker:
“And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate—but there is no competition—
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”
East Coker is the graveyard of Eliot’s ancestors, and he evokes the cadences of Ash Wednesday in this piece. “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” He brings us there and yet, like an unwelcome relation at a funeral, won’t stop. He is heading for the all-encompassing nothing of St. John of the Cross and the dark night. With maybe a touch of Shakespeare. It is hard to follow.
The Dry Sauvages:
“Men’s curiosity searches past and future
And clings to that dimension. But to apprehend
The point of intersection of the timeless
With time, is an occupation for the saint—
No occupation either, but something given
And taken, in a lifetime’s death in love,
Ardour and selflessness and self-surrender.”
Surrender. Well, we reassure each other, “I am not a saint.” But we could be. Unless we ignore the annunciation, the revelation of the mission. Wash me in the cleansing tide, and then what will I become?
Who can truly say, “Let it be done to me according to your word?” But our “fiat” isn’t linear. And the restlessness within does not point to entropy, but to the Center. The still point. Our end.
Little Gidding:
“The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre—
To be redeemed from fire by fire.”
Little Gidding was a utopian Anglican lay community in the 17th century, centered on the Eucharist and divine office. I don’t believe in utopia. This sure ain’t heaven. But heaven bursts forth, and we catch a glimpse…and go back, to re-read it, in the hope we will see more each time.
So, Eliot leads us to the place we were, and are, and to which we are going. And it shall be well.
Discussion Questions
- Does it bother you when academics show off their knowledge? Why? What qualities of writing keep you reading? Did you find them in Eliot?
- In discussing this book, does age matter? If your group is intergenerational, try to match up partners to discuss their reactions to different parts of the poem. Is this an old person’s poem? Or, only suited to the courage of the young? Both?
- Eliot takes us on tour of meaningful places in his life. What are yours? Describe them, both in terms of what others might see physically, and what you can share about them spiritually.
