Burnt Norton
The first poem in the collection is entitled "Burnt Norton" and is divided into a number of parts.
In the first part of the poem, the narrator discusses and analyzes the idea of time. The past, the present and the future are analyzed and the narrator highlights how they are all connected. The narrator points the difference between what happened in someone’s past and the tendency to discuss what really happened shows how no matter what happened, everything will eventually lead to the end.
Humans will always think about the things they did not do and the paths they did not take and wonder what would have happened should they have chosen a different path. The goal we want to achieve but some of us never do is compared with a ‘’rose garden’’, an idyllic place where everyone wants to see and experience but yet only few do. Someone people only want to reach the garden because everyone else wants to do it as well and thus they do not have a clear idea in their mind of what to do next.
The garden is already inhabited by birds that take care of the humans who arrive there. However, the reality is different in the garden from what many believed it would be and as a result many are disappointed.
The second part of the poem talks about a point where the past, the future and the present meet, a place where everything stops. The narrator also mentions we can only be conscious outside out time and how, despite this, consciousness cannot exist outside time.
The third part of the poem describes a place of disaffection, a place where daylight and darkness does not exist and where everything is suspended in time. The men inside that place do not have any control over their lives and are blown away by the wind like pieces of paper.
The third part ends with the narrator urging me and women to descend lower and lower into solitude.
The fourth part open with enumerating various elements measuring time: the sun and the bell. The natural world is affected by the passing of time and the vegetation suffers as a result. The passing of time is so powerful even the light becomes silent.
The fifth part of the poem acts as a conclusion. The idea that nothing can exist outside of time is repeated but the narrator claims there is an exception: love. He also criticizes in the end the way many people waste their time doing nothing all their lives.
East Coker
The poem begins just like the first one with the narrator talking once more about time. The narrator talks about houses and how they rise and fall just like men and animals do: they are sometimes replaced by others while sometimes the place left by them remains empty.
The narrator goes to explain how many are attracted by the big city but how true happiness can be found in nature, the place where everything goes back to the way it should have been. A dance is described linked with a marriage. The dance takes place around a fire and is described in primitive ways, a returning to the old days. The night comes to an end and nothing else happens.
The second part presents November as the time when the rest of the seasons gather. Poetry is deemed useless as well as the knowledge the elders had and their experience.
The third part opens with a universal truth, the narrator claiming everyone will die, no matter what position they have in our modern-day society. Death is called ‘’the darkness of God’’ and the humans are compared with players on a stage who must exit when the play is done. The third part concludes with the narrator admitting he is repeating himself but also highlighting how those ideas are worth repeating.
The fourth parts talks of death and illness once more and compares the whole world with a hospital where each and every one is a patient, waiting to get worse and die. Children cannot escape either from death and they are often forced to kneel before it.
The Dry Salvages
The third poem is entitled "The Dry Salvages’’ and the name is most likely taken from a formation of three rocks in Cape Ann.
The poem opens with the narrator talking about his lack of knowledge about Gods but continues by naming the river as being a God, waiting to unleash its power. The modern society does not look at the river as a God anymore because they have tamed its power and thus they think they have power over it. Even though humanity forgot about the Gods of rivers, they continue to live inside every person just as the Gods of the seas continue to live inside everybody and make themselves heard through the different voices they use.
The first part of the poem ends with the narrator calling the seas and the rivers as being instruments capable of measuring the true time and making the ground swell and change.
The second part analyzes the idea according to which there is no end, only addition. There is also no beginning since humans can’t think of a time when things were not the same as we are experiencing them. As time passes, a person’s experience about the past changes as well and our memories of the past become collective memories shared by everyone on this planet. Our past is also influenced by our present ideas and thus we never have an honest idea about our own past. The narrator ends the second part claiming our negative emotions will continue to live on even in our present and influence our lives.
The third part of the poem mentions the Indian God Krishna and talks about some of the beliefs promoted by those who believe in him. Life is compared here with a train and the narrator claims that some of the ideas promoted nowadays are not true anymore.
The fourth part is addressed to the women who stand on the side and watch men boarding ships to unknown places. They are urged to pray for those traveling on water or for the women who lost husbands and sons on the waters of life.
The last part of the poem deals with describing various ways humans can communicate with the land of the dead and also how some use drugs to get in touch with those who passed or to simply have an enriching spiritual experience.
Little Gidding
The poem starts in the middle of the winter, a special time different from every other time according to the narrator. That period is suspended in time according to the narrator, a time between life and death. During this time, humans are unsure of what they want and so they just walk without a purpose through the woods thinking about who they really are. The first part of the poem ends with the narrator mentioning praying and how it is an important action.
The second part of the poem deals with the idea of destruction and uses ashes as the main image to transmit this idea. A dead city is described in the autumn and the empty streets are used here to transmit the idea of destruction and absence of life.
The poem then switches to talk about hope, symbolized here by a dove coming from the sky and also to talk about love. The poem ends with the narrator claiming we are actually starting from the end and how we have little knowledge of the reason why we are put on this earth.
