T.S.Eliot Burnt Norton I and II

The Four Quartets are Eliot's masterpiece. The depth of his thought and the range of his intellect are everywhere obvious. These verses have been recited many times and can never be heard enough. Here is my rendition.

I

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.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind. But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know. Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?
Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,
Round the corner. Through the first gate,
Into our first world, shall we follow
The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.
There they were, dignified, invisible,
Moving without pressure, over the dead leaves,
In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air,
And the bird called, in response to
The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery,
And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses
Had the look of flowers that are looked at.
There they were as our guests, accepted and accepting.
So we moved, and they, in a formal pattern,
Along the empty alley, into the box circle,
To look down into the drained pool.
Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged,
And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,
And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly,
The surface glittered out of heart of light,
And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.
Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.
Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.



II

Garlic and sapphires in the mud
Clot the bedded axle-tree.
The trilling wire in the blood
Sings below inveterate scars
Appeasing long forgotten wars.
The dance along the artery
The circulation of the lymph
Are figured in the drift of stars
Ascend to summer in the tree
We move above the moving tree
In light upon the figured leaf
And hear upon the sodden floor
Below, the boarhound and the boar
Pursue their pattern as before
But reconciled among the stars.

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded
By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving,
Erhebung without motion, concentration
Without elimination, both a new world
And the old made explicit, understood
In the completion of its partial ecstasy,
The resolution of its partial horror.
Yet the enchainment of past and future
Woven in the weakness of the changing body,
Protects mankind from heaven and damnation
Which flesh cannot endure. Time past and time future
Allow but a little consciousness.
To be conscious is not to be in time
But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden,
The moment in the arbour where the rain beat,
The moment in the draughty church at smokefall
Be remembered; involved with past and future.
Only through time time is conquered.

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[TrillNoel]

aaah this is lovely! lol no idea how its in videos related to me but its a lovely find!

you fit the authors character in real life haha

anyways check out my new song

Hair Down Shawtay

[brychar66]

Thanks Trill :) Nice songs!

[andrewnorris1]

Thought I would have a look at your back catalogue and came upon this one. My first encounter with the 4 Qs was while at school. How lucky I was to have a teacher who inspired her students. The opening lines still haunt me and your reading only increases my awe and excitement. Great to find this one.

[brychar66]

Thanks Andrew. Now you know why "1000 Years" means so much to me.

[written12]

I'll say more in a couple of days, but I couldn't help smiling when you began reading. "Is this one of Charles' poems?" It has your hallmark seriousness with its lack of shyness about naming the abstractions- and bloodless ones they are not- you're trying to take hold of, but with all the musical pleasures of poetry.

Okay, so Eliot's more likely the influencer, you the influenced. But your success working in this vein is something those of us who've discovered your poetry can't help noting.

[brychar66]

I can't tell you how happy and flattered I am to hear that and how perspicacious (as always) you are. I wrote to Eliot sending him my first book of poetry something over a year before he died and telling him what a terrible struggle it had been to escape his influence. He said he found this 'charming'!

[bogorzelak]

Great reading. Thank you for uploading this.

[Auroral3orealis]

I am studying English literature at university and am--most ardently--fascinated with literature. T.S.Eliot's poetry has been with me for as long as I can remember it; I am utterly in love with it. I swooned with delight listening to you read.

[vivascargill]

the opening lines remain impenetrable to me and I have worked on them many years--

Alec Guiness I think recorded the poems?

[TrillNoel]

lol thank you! yeah he has such inspiring quotes that can just be built on from this.

[cavafyinenglish]

Thank you Gary. Eliot & Yeats - my two best English moderns!

[1zangelique]

Ah--magnificent! Many cheers! Thunderous, thunderous applause! Thanks so much for this Charles. More Eliot someday please? You've completely ruined anyone else reading Eliot for me, gladly so ~~Gary