Goodreads: Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot

Four Quartets
T.S. Eliot

This is a collection of four poems: Burnt Norton, East Coker, The Dry Salvages and Little Gidding. Of the four I think I enjoyed East Coker and Burnt Norton the most, followed by The Dry Salvages and way at the bottom would I rank Little Gidding. But I don't read much poetry and wouldn't be the greatest judge of it and it would be entirely possible for me to reread the book later on and find my order of best to worst to be inverted. So much of poetry is capturing a mood between the poet and the reader and when the reader is not in the mood to be caught in a mood even the best poets may struggle. Overall the four poems together are good. There are a few lines that Eliot writes in these four that jumped off the page for me.

Burnt Norton II

"Only through time time is conquered"

Burnt Norton III

"Distracted from distraction by distraction
Filled with fancies and empty of meaning
Tumid apathy with no concentration"

Burnt Norton V

"That which is only living can only die. Words, after speech, reach into silence".

East Coker I

"In my beginning is my end"

East Coker II

"The only wisdom we can hope to acquire
is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless"

East Coker III

"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"

The Dry Salvages II

"We cannot think ... of a future that is not liable like the past, to have no destination"

"We had the experience but missed the meaning"

Little Gidding V

"And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time"

Eliot seems to be struggling with something in these poems. He is struggling with time itself. Has it all been wasted in his choices? Have we been distracted by empty, meaningless things as time has passed us by? I think I like these poems because while Eliot acknowledges this struggle he is ultimately optimistic in his outlook. Sure, we struggled after the experience and missed the meaning, but ultimately all the roads will eventually lead us to home where we will be contented.