[메모] T. S. Eliot's "Fourt Quartets"

※ 발췌 (excerpts):

출처 1: Martin Scofield. T. S. Eliot: The Poems. Cambridge University Press. 1988.
자료: 구글도서


( ... ... ) Part III opens with one of the most awkward of Eliot's casual urbanities:

I sometimes wonder if that is what Krishna meant─

That is bad enough in its tone of pretentious off-handedness, but to add 'Among other things' approaches the ludicrous. (It is slightly reminiscent of the anticipatory qualifications and circumlocutions of Henry James's later style.) The images that follow seem to be a rather random clutch of metaphors for the idea (which we have encounter before) of the identity of past and future─though they do add the interesting notion of a kind of nostalgia for the future (where dwelling wistfully on the future is as fruitless as dwelling on the past). But the main problem of this Part seems to be a confusion of meaning or a hovering between two meanings. The central idea would seem to be that of the value of action in the present moment without regard to the future or the ‘fruit of action’. It is this idea which Eliot takes from Krishna in the Hindu Bhagavad Gita (2.47-8), and to this is added the idea that what the mind is intent on ‘at the time of death’ is what shall ‘fructify in the lives of others’ (which adapts 8.6 of the Gita). So far the idea is clear enough. But to this Eliot adds the repeated injunction ‘Fare forward’ (which is not in the Gita, though Eliot gives the word to Krishna). ‘Fare forward’, with the images of travel which accompany it, suggests the spirit of the end of 'East Coker': 'Old men ought to be explorers'. But to fare forward is to aim at the future and a destination in time and place and would seem to suggest a different spirit from the concentration on the present moment in the idea that it is what the mind is intent on at the time of death─‘(And the time of death is every moment)’─which is the one important ‘action’. The image of being aboard ship, suspended in time, is appropriate to the idea of a consciousness of a present moment as if ‘outside time’. But the injunction ‘Fare forward’ seems to suggest another set of values. We have already been told (in line 6) that ‘the way forward is the way back’ so this insistence on a particular direction seems (in this context) perplexing. The passage ends 'Not fare well,/ But fare forward, voyagers': but leaving aside the play on  ( ... ... )


출처 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Quartets#The_Dry_Salvages

Four Quartets is a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published individually over a six-year period. The first poem, Burnt Norton, was written and published with a collection of his early works following the production of Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral. After a few years, Eliot composed the other three poems, East Coker, The Dry Salvages, and Little Gidding, which were written during World War II and the air-raids on Great Britain. The poems were not collected until Eliot's New York publisher printed them together in 1943. They were first published as a series in Great Britain in 1941 to 1942 towards the end of Eliot's poetic career.

Four Quartets are four interlinked meditations with the common theme being man's relationship with time, the universe, and the divine. In describing his understanding of the divine within the poems, Eliot blends his Anglo-Catholicism with mystical, philosophical and poetic works from both Eastern and Western religious and cultural traditions, with references to the Bhagavad-Gita and the Pre-Socratics as well as St. John of the Cross and Julian of Norwich.

Although many critics find the Four Quartets to be Eliot's great last work, some of Eliot's contemporary critics, including George Orwell, were dissatisfied with Eliot's overt religiosity.

( ... ... )

The Dry Salvages

Eliot began writing The Dry Salvages at the end of 1940 during air-raids on London, and managed to finish the poem quickly. The poem included many personal images connecting to Eliot's childhood, and emphasised the image of water and sailing as a metaphor for humanity.[6] According to the poem, there is a connection to all of mankind within each man. If we just accept drifting upon the sea, then we will end up broken upon rocks. We are restrained by time, but the Annunciation gave mankind hope that it will be able to escape. This hope is not part of the present. What we must do is understand the patterns found within the past in order to see that there is meaning to be found. This meaning allows one to experience eternity through moments of revelation.[22]


출처 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dry_Salvages

The poem is described as a poem of water and hope.[5] It begins with images of the sea, water, and of Eliot's past; this water later becomes a metaphor for life and how humans act. This transitions into an image of a ringing bell and a discussion on time and prayer. Images of men drowning dominate the section before leading into how science and ideas on evolution separate mankind from properly understanding the past. This ends with Krishna stating that the divine will, and not future benefits or rewards, matters. The fourth section is a prayer to the Virgin Mary for fishermen, sailors, and the drowned.[6]

The end of The Dry Salvages starts with a discussion about how people attempt to see the future through various superstitious means.[7] Then the narrator tries to convince the reader that resignation about death is necessary. However, such resignation should be viewed as pushing the self towards redemption and the eternal life in the next world. By acting properly, one would be able to overcome life and move towards the next world.[8]