East Coker

Four Quartets #2

by T.S. Eliot

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

About the author

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 the Individual Talent. Eliot was born an American, moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at the age of 25), and became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.S._Eliot

Reviews

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

“in the end is my beginning”

[Michael Prezioso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal. Still wondering WTF was up with "The Waste Land" though

[Joseph Knecht · Rating 3 out of 5]

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.

[Aran Chandran · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a sense of inevitability and pessimism in this piece that portents cycles of despair for the state of the world. There's a strong sense of religious or spiritual undertones as it's a man trying to make sense of it all.

Probably important to note: T.S. Eliot's ashes were buried at East Coker, a choice he made when he discovered his ancestors were emigrated to America from here and fulfilling his poems theme of cycle.

[Asher D Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The whole of the poem is starting to make a little more sense

There are passages in here from the wisdom literature and there was an undoubtable reference to Good Friday.

The beauty of the way he says the words was enough to get 5 stars knowing there was a reason that he said those things, but now understanding more why he did I am growing to appreciate in a new way

[Jerzy Andrzejewski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mniej filozoficzna ale wciąż wow. Do każdej myśli przytacza idealne porównania. Moje ulubione to porównanie starzejącej się osoby z ogniem palącym powoli jej życie.

[Mary Grace Martinez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know this is considered a classic, but it isn't really my thing and I didn't really understand any of it.

[Angel Torres · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one hits harder than I thought.
It feels like it cuts gently into vanity, pride and how things are "supposed" to be.