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It is the last substantial poetry he wrote before turning to drama and consists of four poems each with a five-part structure. Here Eliot muses on the idea that all possible outcomes of any event are secretly around us, unseen and unperceived.
FOUR QUARTETS is a complicated and vast work. But FOUR QUARTETS is also an entertaining work for the casual reader.
This four part poem has been with me for the past forty years since my English major room mate in college introduced me to it.
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In this poem Eliot quite puposefully uses all sorts of language and modes of thought and quotes from some small fraction of the huge compendium of Western and Eastern thought that was in his brain.
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In writing about the Four Quartets there is little more I can say other than to recommend that you read this slender little volume.
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Eliot I am constrained to bring up the issue of anti-Semitism raised relative to his life and work.
However, having absorbed that and having read every word of the Four Quartets over and over for a very long time, I can only say none of that is in there.
When was Eliot anything but precise in his choice of word? The 16th and final quartet returns to the classic 4-movement form.
The Four Quartets is to me a shining example of a man of deep understanding of God and reality.
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