TIME more than anything defines the contrasting dimensions of relative existence: an apparent snare with no escape, a continuum of change ever wearing away the fabric of Existence, a flow and beauty in constant renewal, a series of exquisite moments that bind life together. The Four Quartets opening four lines demonstrate Eliots grasp of time, its spiritual significance, and its philosophically exasperating nature which the poet contemplates in the line: time is eternally present, an assertion that lends to time both relative and absolute properties while conflating its various, fluctuating forms-the past forever disappearing, the future forever being born, and the present forever being renewed into a single moment. Pointedly juxtaposing time and eternity, Eliot calls attention to the close relationship between them. By merging past, present, and future he creates the eternal present, absolute and relative, never changing and always fleeting. Eliot espouses the experience of this transcendental field as the spiritually transforming value of all life both for the individual and the world. Therefore, in Eliots last and greatest poetic effort we find not a negative or dualistic view of life after all, but rather the vision of a man who passionately believed in a spiritual unity. 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. https://youtube/watch?v=U8C--Eq5h9M
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 17:08:26 +0000
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