Lecture 05 - The Enchainment of Past and Future

Lecture 5: The Enchainment of Past and Future

English 140
Summer Session B, 2012

13 August 2012

“We also insist that politics demands complex thinking
and that poetry is an arena for such thinking: a place
to explore the constitution of meaning, of self, of
groups, of nations,—of value.”
― Charles Bernstein, “Revenge of the Poet-Critic” (1999)

Some poetic terminology ...
Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shoudst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.

– Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress” (1651?)

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shoudst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.

– Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress” (1651?)

The poem’s epigraph

τοῦ λόγου δὲ ἐόντος ξυνοῦ ζώουσιν οἱ πολλοί
ὡς ἰδίαν ἔχοντες φρόνησιν
(“Though wisdom is common, the many live
as if they have wisdom of their own.”)

ὁδὸς ἄνω κάτω μία καὶ ὡυτή
(“The way upward and the way downward
are one and the same.”)

—Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος (Heraclitos of Ephesus)

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965)
● American expatriate who
stayed in England after
spending time there as a
student during WWI.
● Probably best known for
“The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock” (1915) and The
Waste Land (1922).
● Nobel Prize for Literature
(1948), Order of Merit
(1948), Tony Award (1950
and twice in 1983), Legion of
Honor (1951), Presidential
Eliot in 1934. Photo by Lady Ottoline
Medal of Freedom (1964). Morrell.

The Four Quartets
● Originally published separately as “Burnt Norton” (1936),
“East Coker” (1940), “The Dry Salvages” (1941), and
“Little Gidding” (1942). First collected in 1943.
● In music, a “quartet” is a way of arranging four
instruments or voices so as to produce melodious
harmonies.
● Eliot uses the “quartet” as a metaphor for the structure of the
poems to highlight the way that various tonal and metaphoric
strands interact in each poem.
● Each poem also connects back to previous poems in the
series by revisiting themes and employing similar
devices.

Note that “Burnt Norton” both begins and ends
with a meditation on time:
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future;
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable. (117; lines 1-5)
[……………………………………………]
Ridiculous the waste sad time
Stretching before and after. (122; lines 174-5)
● The poem contains many philosophical and
religious mediations about time.

Note that “Burnt Norton” both begins and ends
with a meditation on time:
/ / – – / /
Time present and time past
– / – / // –/ – –
Are both perhaps present in time future;
– / / – – / – / /
And –
time future contained in time past.
– / / – / – / –
If all time is eternally present
/ / – – – / –
All time is unredeemable. (117; lines 1-5)
[……………………………………………]
Ridiculous the waste sad time
Stretching before and after. (122; lines 174-5)
The poem contains many philosophical and
religious mediations about time.

Each of the Quartets has a similar five-part structure:
i. Scenes of action and movement, combined with
meditations on time, with fleeting glimpses of
timelessness. (A comparatively long section.)
ii. An episode of dissatisfaction with worldly experience.
(A comparatively long section.)
iii. Purgation in the world, divesting the soul of the love
of created things. (A comparatively long section.)
iv. A lyric prayer for, or affirmation of the need of,
Intercession. (A short section; usually an emotional,
self-contained lyric, sometimes associated in some
way with Mary, mother of Jesus.)
v. The problems of attaining artistic wholeness and, at
the same time, the problems of achieving spiritual
health. (Normally a rhetorically elevated restatement
of the poem's themes with a conclusion. A
comparatively long section.)

Media credits
The photo of T.S. Eliot on slide 5 was taken in
1934 by Lady Ottoline Morrell. Its copyright has
expired.
Original source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Stearns_
Eliot_by_Lady_Ottoline_Morrell_%281934%29.jpg

Lecture 05 - The Enchainment of Past and Future

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