217:, especially with its emphasis on death and dying. The place is connected to where Eliot's family originates, and, as such, is also the place where his family will symbolically end. In the second part of the poem, nature is experiencing disorder, and it is suggested that humans too may burn, and also that reason, knowledge, and science cannot save people. The errors of our past become the reasons for war and conflict and we need to become humble in order to escape the destruction. However, darkness consumes the rulers of the world and society. This is, in part, due to Adam's fall, and the resulting concept of original sin. Christ is our savior and we need to seek redemption to overcome our human failings. Eliot states that he has been involved with fighting for humanity and trying to help mankind learn what is important. Only through Christ is man able to be redeemed.
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255:(1887), which described how Eliot's family lived in East Coker for 200 years. When Andrew Eliot left, he disrupted the family history. Similarly, Eliot broke from his own family when he travelled away from his family, a family that he saw was declining. Within the poem, Eliot emphasises the need for a journey and the need for inward change.
109:, a place that Eliot visited in 1937 with the parish church, where his ashes were later kept. The place held a particular importance to Eliot and family because their ancestor, Andrew Eliot, left the village to travel to America in 1669. A plaque in the church invites prayers for the soul of "Thomas Stearns Eliot, poet".
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when they focus on internal travels. Through these travels, mankind is able to have faith in salvation and able to see that there is more to the world than darkness. Eliot explains within the poem that we are all interconnected through time and that we must realise this. Only through this realisation
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served as an expression of disillusionment after World War I, even though Eliot never accepted this interpretation. World War II itself has a direct mention in only a few of Eliot's writings. However, World War II does affect the poem, especially with the disruption caused by the war being reflected
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sold almost 12,000 copies during its initial publication. Eliot's response was to claim that its popularity proved that it was a bad poem. Regardless of the truthfulness of the statement, he enjoyed the fact that the poem could inspire people during the war. Upon receiving an essay from a schoolboy
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The third section discusses the rulers of secular society and their flaws. The fourth, which is a formal section, deploys a series of
Baroque paradoxes in the context of the Good Friday mass. This past manner is regarded ironically by the poet in the fifth section as he looks back on his period of
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gives a message of hope that the
English communities would survive through World War II. In a letter dated 9 February 1940, Eliot stated, "We can have very little hope of contributing to any immediate social change; and we are more disposed to see our hope in modest and local beginnings, than in
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The poem discusses time and disorder within nature that is the result of humanity following only science and not the divine. Leaders are described as materialistic and unable to understand reality. The only way for mankind to find salvation is through pursuing the divine by looking inwards and
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transforming the whole world at once... We must keep alive aspirations which can remain valid throughout the longest and darkest period of universal calamity and degradation." The poem also relied on the war as a way to connect to Eliot's idea that there was a united humanity. In particular,
159:, each of the five sections holds a theme that is common to each of the poems: time, experience, purgation, prayer, and wholeness. The time theme is stated in the first section as "In my beginning is my end" which, given proper attention, might prove to lead into the eternal moment.
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In a twist from expectation, Eliot's poem suggests that old men should go out and explore. He warns that people should trade wisdom for pointless experience and argues that men should explore human experience itself. This concept is hinted of in
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coming to
America and the stories of them that were common throughout his childhood. In particular, his mother wrote poems about the pilgrims arriving in New England, and Eliot found information related to his family's history in
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claimed that "the war modified attitude by convincing him that there was a
Western cause to be positively defended. And after the war there was a Germany to be brought back within the Western tradition".
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Besides the many literary sources, Eliot also draws on his personal feelings and experience, especially on the great stress that he felt while composing the poem. Similarly, Eliot used the image of
334:, James Johnson Sweeney, Spring 1941, and Curist Bradford, Winter 1944, discussed paraphrases of the poems and the sources of various passages. However, Andrews Wanning, Spring 1941, stated that
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explains: "That end, for those who apprehend a reality superior to 'birth, copulation, and death'—a reality transcending the rhythms of physical nature—is to know God and enjoy Him forever."
176:" as "largely wasted". He welcomes approaching old age as a new opportunity to find renewal, although it might only be a rediscovery of "what has been lost and found and lost again".
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and that "'Burnt Norton' is a poem of suggestion, 'East Coker' a poem of argument and explanation". Another
American critic, Delmore Schwartz, did not appreciate the tone within
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Despite the poem's doubt and darkness, a note of hope is struck by the first line of the fifth section, "So here I am in the middle way". This refers to the first line of
283:. In terms of theology, Eliot is orthodox in his theory and relies primarily on the writings of St Augustine. There are some additional influences from the works of
239:. Unlike Homer's hero, Dante argues that men should not travel in the material world but in the spiritual world. Both Dante and Eliot put forth a similar view to
186:, "Midway in our life's journey, I went astray". Although the descent is predicated on going astray, so also is persevering beyond it into the light.
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In 1939 T. S. Eliot thought that he would be unable to continue writing poetry. In an attempt to see if he could still, he started copying aspects of
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The second section discusses disorder within nature, which is opposite to the discussion of order within nature found in the second section of
323:, Eliot wrote a complimentary reply, praising the boy's review despite his interpretation of the poem differing from Eliot's. Eliot's friend,
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is mankind able to understand the truth of the universe. This, in turn, would allow humanity to break free from the burden of time. As
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Family and family history also play an important role in the poem. Eliot found information on his family from the book
235:. Dante argues that old men are supposed to return to God and describes the process in a way similar to the travels of
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within the poem as a disruption of nature and heaven. The poem describes society in ways similar to
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for its Easter edition. It was later reprinted May and June, and it was published on its own by
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Early reviews focused on discussing the poem in terms of its content and not its style. In the
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He managed to complete two sections by
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realising that humanity is interconnected. Only then can people understand the universe.
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is described as a poem of late summer, earth, and faith. As in the other poems of the
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According to Eliot the poetic aspects of the poem are grounded in the tradition of
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and Dawson's reliance on understanding God as the first step to a better society.
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in
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The poem served as a sort of opposite to the popular idea that
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as a series of four poems based on the same theme with
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Works originally published in The New
English Weekly
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868:The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles
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74:ancestry and where Eliot's ashes were placed in
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456:John Ciardi's translation, New York, 1954, p.28
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677:. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.
96:St Michael and All Angels' Church, East Coker
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1136:T. S. Eliot Prize (Truman State University)
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60:, and in the US in the May 1940 issue of
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120:and others helped review and edit it.
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698:. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989.
663:. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984.
25:Coker Court and the parish church in
1080:Canticle IV: The Journey of the Magi
670:. New York: Macmillan Company, 1972.
1016:Tradition and the Individual Talent
861:Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
764:The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
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682:T. S. Eliot: The Critical Heritage
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684:. New York: Routledge, 1997.
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253:A Sketch of the Eliot Family
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1064:Assassinio nella cattedrale
1030:A Choice of Kipling's Verse
10:
1315:
1186:Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot
1038:The Frontiers of Criticism
1002:Selected Essays, 1917–1932
705:. London: MacMillan, 1986.
524:Manganiello 1989 pp. 31–33
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1218:William Greenleaf Eliot
483:Bergonzi 1972 qtd p. 150
388:Ackroyd 1984 pp. 254–255
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66:. The title refers to a
16:1940 poem by T. S. Eliot
1153:Portrait of T. S. Eliot
1072:Murder in the Cathedral
1056:Murder in the Cathedral
1009:Hamlet and His Problems
956:Murder in the Cathedral
882:Growltiger's Last Stand
785:Whispers of Immortality
703:A T. S. Eliot Companion
563:Gordon 2000 pp. 346–348
545:Gordon 2000 pp. 348–349
474:Gordon 2000 qtd. p. 353
338:was a better poem than
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977:The Confidential Clerk
694:Manganiello, Dominic.
620:Gordon 2000 qtd p. 344
554:Manganiello 1989 p. 41
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38:is the second poem of
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1289:Poetry by T. S. Eliot
696:T. S. Eliot and Dante
638:Grant 1997 qtd. p. 43
536:Kirk 2008 pp. 252–253
515:Kirk 2008 pp. 250–252
447:Kirk 2008 pp. 250–251
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1251:William Butler Yeats
875:Gus: The Theatre Cat
506:Bergonzi 1972 p. 151
397:Bergonzi 1972 p. 150
173:l'entre deux guerres
1246:Jean Jules Verdenal
984:The Elder Statesman
827:Journey of the Magi
666:Bergonzi, Bernard.
661:T. S. Eliot: A Life
602:calmview.bham.ac.uk
578:calmview.bham.ac.uk
497:Ackroyd 1984 p. 255
361:Ackroyd 1984 p. 254
94:Memorial plaque in
68:village in Somerset
970:The Cocktail Party
963:The Family Reunion
889:The Naming of Cats
771:Portrait of a Lady
465:Gordon 2000 p. 353
438:Pinion 1986 p. 223
406:Pinion 1986 p. 219
293:Christopher Dawson
241:Augustine of Hippo
126:New English Weekly
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1236:John Davy Hayward
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1202:Henry Ware Eliot
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1131:T. S. Eliot Prize
942:Sweeney Agonistes
834:A Song for Simeon
689:Eliot and His Age
673:Gordon, Lyndall.
289:John of the Cross
281:Stéphane Mallarmé
114:John Davy Hayward
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1181:Eliot family
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1162:(1984 play,
1048:Adaptations
853:Later poems
820:Ariel Poems
756:Early poems
740:T. S. Eliot
668:T. S. Eliot
277:W. B. Yeats
40:T. S. Eliot
1274:1940 poems
1268:Categories
1241:Ezra Pound
1231:Emily Hale
1165:1994 film)
1112:Publishing
903:East Coker
654:References
607:2021-06-01
583:2021-06-01
344:East Coker
340:East Coker
325:Emily Hale
321:East Coker
319:analysing
316:East Coker
195:East Coker
153:East Coker
142:East Coker
122:East Coker
107:East Coker
86:Background
35:East Coker
29:, Somerset
27:East Coker
1101:2019 film
1096:1998 film
1074:(TV play)
792:Gerontion
311:Reception
1212:(mother)
1204:(father)
949:The Rock
778:Preludes
300:pilgrims
237:Odysseus
232:Convivio
181:Dante's
1145:Related
1067:(opera)
259:Sources
183:Inferno
1174:People
1058:(film)
1033:(1941)
275:, and
190:Themes
994:Prose
934:Plays
350:Notes
227:Dante
1086:Cats
287:and
148:Poem
229:'s
42:'s
1270::
600:.
576:.
529:^
488:^
429:^
307:.
271:,
267:,
116:,
78:.
1040:"
1036:"
1018:"
1014:"
1011:"
1007:"
891:"
887:"
884:"
880:"
877:"
873:"
870:"
866:"
836:"
832:"
829:"
825:"
794:"
790:"
787:"
783:"
780:"
776:"
773:"
769:"
766:"
762:"
732:e
725:t
718:v
610:.
586:.
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