"Only through time time is conquered": A Study on T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets

Abstract

In the Four Quartets (1943), T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) resumes his spiritual journey from the abyss of Hell, passing by Purgatory, and ending up in Paradise. This poem is thus divided into five sections, linked by frequent themes which are developed in complex ways and are eventually resolved. Majorly, the Four Quartets is concerned with the search for meaning in the chaos of modernism, the quest for peace and joy in the flux of time and the discovery of God in permanence. Thence, Eliot makes of the delicate relation of the Eternal to the Transient as the central theme of the Four Quartets. In the Four Quartets (1943), T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) resumes his spiritual journey from the abyss of Hell, passing by Purgatory, and ending up in Paradise. In Western classical music "a Quartet is a piece written to be played by four stringed instruments" (Sen, 264) This poem is divided into five sections, linked by recurring themes which are developed in a complex way and is then resolved. Majorly, the Four Quartets is concerned with the search for meaning in the chaos of modernism, the quest for peace and joy in the flux of time and the discovery of God in permanence. Thus, Eliot makes of the delicate relation of the Eternal to the Transient as the central theme of the Four Quartets.