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Four Quartets
The Four Quartets are a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published over a six-year period. The first poem, Burnt Norton, was published with a collection of his early works (1936's Collected Poems 1909–1935).
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. They were first published as a series by Faber and Faber in Great Britain between 1940 and 1942 towards the end of Eliot's poetic career (East Coker in September 1940, Burnt Norton in February 1941, The Dry Salvages in September 1941 and Little Gidding in 1942). The poems were not collected until Eliot's New York publisher printed them together in 1943.
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 the Christian mystics, John of the Cross and Julian of Norwich.
Although many critics find the Four Quartets to be Eliot's last great work, some of his contemporary critics were dissatisfied with his overt religiosity. George Orwell argued that religion was not a worthy topic for Eliot's poems. Later critics have disagreed with Orwell and argued instead that the religious themes made the poem stronger. Overall, reviews of the poem in Britain were favourable, while those in the United States were split between those who liked Eliot's later style and others who felt he had abandoned positive aspects of his earlier poetry.
While working on his play Murder in the Cathedral, Eliot came up with the idea for a poem that was structured similarly to The Waste Land. The resulting poem, Burnt Norton, named after a manor house, was published in Eliot's 1936 edition of Collected Poems 1909–1935. Eliot decided to create another poem similar to Burnt Norton but with a different location in mind. This second poem, East Coker, named after a village the poet visited in Somerset, was finished and published by Easter 1940. His ashes would later be entombed at the village's St Michael and All Angels' Church.
As Eliot was finishing East Coker, World War II began to disrupt his life and he spent more time lecturing across Great Britain and assisting in the war effort to the best of his ability. It was during this time that he began working on The Dry Salvages, the third poem, which was put together towards the end of 1940. This poem was published in February 1941, after which Eliot immediately began to plot out his fourth poem, Little Gidding. Eliot's health declined and he stayed in Shamley Green to recuperate. His illness and the war disrupted his ability to write and he became dissatisfied with each draft. He believed that the problem with the poem was with himself and that he had started the poem too soon and written it too quickly. By September 1941, he stopped writing and focused on his lecturing. It was not until September 1942 that Eliot finished the last poem and it was finally published.
While writing East Coker Eliot thought of creating a 'quartet' of poems that would reflect the idea of the four elements and, loosely, the four seasons. As the first four parts of The Waste Land have each been associated with one of the four classical elements so has each of the constituent poems of Four Quartets: air for Burnt Norton, earth for East Coker, water for The Dry Salvages, and fire for Little Gidding. However, there is little support for the poems matching with individual seasons. Eliot described what he meant by 'quartet' in a 3 September 1942 letter to John Hayward:
... these poems are all in a particular set form which I have elaborated, and the word "quartet" does seem to me to start people on the right track for understanding them ("sonata" in any case is too musical). It suggests to me the notion of making a poem by weaving in together three or four superficially unrelated themes: the "poem" being the degree of success in making a new whole out of them.
Four Quartets
The Four Quartets are a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published over a six-year period. The first poem, Burnt Norton, was published with a collection of his early works (1936's Collected Poems 1909–1935).
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. They were first published as a series by Faber and Faber in Great Britain between 1940 and 1942 towards the end of Eliot's poetic career (East Coker in September 1940, Burnt Norton in February 1941, The Dry Salvages in September 1941 and Little Gidding in 1942). The poems were not collected until Eliot's New York publisher printed them together in 1943.
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 the Christian mystics, John of the Cross and Julian of Norwich.
Although many critics find the Four Quartets to be Eliot's last great work, some of his contemporary critics were dissatisfied with his overt religiosity. George Orwell argued that religion was not a worthy topic for Eliot's poems. Later critics have disagreed with Orwell and argued instead that the religious themes made the poem stronger. Overall, reviews of the poem in Britain were favourable, while those in the United States were split between those who liked Eliot's later style and others who felt he had abandoned positive aspects of his earlier poetry.
While working on his play Murder in the Cathedral, Eliot came up with the idea for a poem that was structured similarly to The Waste Land. The resulting poem, Burnt Norton, named after a manor house, was published in Eliot's 1936 edition of Collected Poems 1909–1935. Eliot decided to create another poem similar to Burnt Norton but with a different location in mind. This second poem, East Coker, named after a village the poet visited in Somerset, was finished and published by Easter 1940. His ashes would later be entombed at the village's St Michael and All Angels' Church.
As Eliot was finishing East Coker, World War II began to disrupt his life and he spent more time lecturing across Great Britain and assisting in the war effort to the best of his ability. It was during this time that he began working on The Dry Salvages, the third poem, which was put together towards the end of 1940. This poem was published in February 1941, after which Eliot immediately began to plot out his fourth poem, Little Gidding. Eliot's health declined and he stayed in Shamley Green to recuperate. His illness and the war disrupted his ability to write and he became dissatisfied with each draft. He believed that the problem with the poem was with himself and that he had started the poem too soon and written it too quickly. By September 1941, he stopped writing and focused on his lecturing. It was not until September 1942 that Eliot finished the last poem and it was finally published.
While writing East Coker Eliot thought of creating a 'quartet' of poems that would reflect the idea of the four elements and, loosely, the four seasons. As the first four parts of The Waste Land have each been associated with one of the four classical elements so has each of the constituent poems of Four Quartets: air for Burnt Norton, earth for East Coker, water for The Dry Salvages, and fire for Little Gidding. However, there is little support for the poems matching with individual seasons. Eliot described what he meant by 'quartet' in a 3 September 1942 letter to John Hayward:
... these poems are all in a particular set form which I have elaborated, and the word "quartet" does seem to me to start people on the right track for understanding them ("sonata" in any case is too musical). It suggests to me the notion of making a poem by weaving in together three or four superficially unrelated themes: the "poem" being the degree of success in making a new whole out of them.
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