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26 pages 52 minutes read

T. S. Eliot

Four Quartets

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1941

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Epigraph and Quartet 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Epigraph and Quartet 1 Summary: “Burnt Norton”

Before the poem begins, an Epigraph in two quotations by the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus appears, inviting readers to think about knowledge and the sameness of “the way upward and the way downward” (Epigraph).

The first poem of the quartet begins with a meditation on time, which is “unredeemable” (Line 5) no matter its context in the past, present, or future. The speaker of the poem—who is understood to be Eliot himself—then invites the reader through a gate to a rose garden, acknowledging that he, the speaker, is unaware of a reason to explore the roses.

The speaker accompanies the reader into the garden, prodding them to be led by the sounds of nature and the bird guiding them through a gate. “Unheard music” (Line 29) sounds as the reader moves through the garden towards an empty pool where a single lotus appears. A cloud passes overhead as the bird urges the reader to leave the garden because “human kind/Cannot bear very much reality” (Lines 44-45).

The second section of “Burnt Norton” begins with an image of “[g]arlic and sapphires in the mud” (Line 49). Wars of the past have left “scars” (Line 52), and the speaker traces the movement of blood under the stars where “the boarhound and the boar” (Line 61) dance. In the second stanza, the dance continues around a point of stillness. At this unspecified location that has been in existence for an undetermined, unmeasurable length of time, the reader finds relief from internal and external pressures of all kinds. The speaker encourages the reader to accept that ”[o]nly through time time is conquered” (Line 92).

The third section occurs in a poorly lit “place of disaffection” (Line 93). The speaker can barely see the faces “[d]istracted from distraction by distraction” (Line 104) but is aware of their indifference. Time passes as the wind blows through the city of London. The speaker reminds the reader to give in to their sense of aloneness, as stillness contrasts with the world’s hunger for movement.

Images of flowers, trees, and “the kingfisher’s wing” (Line 137) dominate the fourth section. A dark cloud obscures the sun.

In the fifth and final section of the poem, the speaker describes the immortality of language and music. Though objects of art are still by nature, both art and language can move through time, straining while harsh voices attack them. The sound of children laughing in the garden draws the speaker’s attention to the sadness characterizing the passage of time.

Epigraph and Quartet 1 Analysis

Thanks to the Epigraph at the start of the poem, readers of “The Four Quartets” immediately understand the poem will be full of reversals of thought, apparent contradictions, and paradox. The two quotations by Heraclitus ask readers to consider the possibility that individual thoughts and the knowledge belonging to an individual is perhaps incomplete. The Epigraph further suggests all movement is the same no matter the direction it follows. These disorienting thoughts set the tone for the rest of the series, which appears in four distinct quartets.

The first quartet, “Burnt Norton,” is divided into five sections of varying length. Each section contains two or three stanzas which are also irregular in structure. The irregularity of the poem’s structure parallels the reader’s experience of meandering through the rose garden dominating the first section. Individual lines of poetry are enjambed, and punctuation unpredictably appears, just as the sounds and sights of the rose garden appear and disappear, serving to disorient readers already bemused by the quotations in the Epigraph. The free verse in which the poem is written enhances the dizzying experience since no predictable structure nor rhyme scheme is present to comfort readers.

The poem is named for an English manor house that Eliot visited. The poem’s speaker describes an atmosphere of confusion with a tone alternating between frankness and encouraging ease. At the start of “Burnt Norton,” the speaker invites the reader to consider the unknowable aspects of time, as the words appear on the lines in brief lists suggesting deliberate, plodding steps. These lines acknowledge the outwardly contradictory nature of time: Time moves forward as minutes tick past and night follows day, but then day follows night and the numbers identifying hours and minutes regularly increase and decrease. As well, the speaker addresses the fact that the present moment is never actually fully there; as soon as one recognizes the existence of a moment, the moment has passed, and all that is left is a memory.

The rumination on time at the start of “Burnt Norton” may plod, but the pace of the poem picks up as the speaker welcomes the reader through the door to the rose garden. Nature imagery abounds, and against the beauty and comfort of this backdrop, the reader faces painful realities of existence. Evidence of this pain appears in the speaker’s descriptions of distracted human faces. These faces reveal the natural tendency of people to seek diversion from the unpleasant and lonely realities of existence. The bird in the rose garden, like the speaker of the poem, demonstrates a sense of protectiveness towards humanity; according to the last stanza of the first quartet, both art and nature can and have endured significant pain and suffering, but humans—who are weaker—struggle with the harshness of reality. 

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