Essay Questions

What is a quartet?

The name quartet appears in the title of the poem. The name refers to a group of four singers or instrument players playing a piece of music. It can also refer to four voices singing a musical piece. This name involving four is important in a quartet and the reason why the collection of poems is called a quartet is because there are only four poems in the collection. The name of the poem also contains a pleonasm since quartet meant "four’’ and thus the addition of the word "four’’ in the beginning is redundant.

Explain the third part of the poem "Burnt Norton’’.

In this place of the poem, the narrator talks about a place of disaffection where many men and women find themselves. The narrator describes the place in a bleak manner, hinting there is nothing left there: there is not even darkness and light, thus highlighting even more the idea that the place is empty. The third part of the poem ends with the narrator describing men being blown away like paper by the wind. What this transmits is the idea that a person who does not know what he wants from life is as light as a piece of paper, blown away from one place to another by every opinion he encounters.

With what does the narrator compare death in the poem "East Coker’’?

The narrator refers to death and calls it as being "the darkness of God’’. What this sentence transmits is the idea that after death, there is nothing more that exists. God does not exist in death as he can only exist in time and life. The human life is also compared with a play and the humans with actors playing on the stage. When the play is done, the actors have to leave he stage even if they do not want. When a person goes to watch a play, he knows there will come a moment when the play will end and in a similar manner humans know there life will end as soon as we become conscious of ourselves. Also, the comparison with the play transmits the idea that humans are never truly honest with themselves and that they are only playing a role.