Reality vs. perception
One of the major themes in the poem "Burnt Norton’’ is the idea that reality is different from the perception many people may have. For example, the speaker mentions how many people have a certain idea of how they want their future to look like. Those people think they are working towards a certain goal and make every sacrifice and effort possible to reach their goal. The reason why they do this is because they hope they will find happiness. This is however not true as the speaker goes to point out how achieving those ideas does not always bring happiness and how most of the time it only makes people feel disappointed.
Nature and urban spaces
The main theme in the poem "East Coker’’ is the difference between the urban space and the natural one. The vast majority of people are attracted to the urban space, going to the places where the light shines. But this is not a good thing according to the speaker. Nature is where a person can get in touch with what is truly important. It is nature that provides people with the necessary things in life and only nature can make a person understand what is worth fighting for and what things are worthless. Because of this, the speaker urges his readers to return to the natural space.
Death as inevitable
Another common motif in the poems is the idea that humans will eventually die. The speaker describes humans as walking towards death from the first moment we open our eyes. No matter how much a person tries, no one will be able to escape from death and thus this is something every person should be aware of in order to live their life to the fullest. The narrator also tries to make the reader aware of how not only the old are the ones who have to face death but also the young ones, even infants.
Art and poetry
Art is another major theme in the poems, and is overall given as the answer to the question of how to live life to its fullest, knowing that death is inevitable, and of how to live more in touch with nature in an increasingly industrialising and urbanising world. The speaker argues that through artistic expression, people can transcend the limits of the linear and monodirectional flow of time(through visual art, one can find 'movement' in 'stillness', "Burnt Coker"), and that the usual or traditional rules and conventions of poetry are impediments to truthful and full expression.
Disillusionment
The poems also address a pervading sense of disillusionment that followed the First World War, another common theme across the modernist movement. The speaker challenges traditional modes of authority, not only in terms of political power but also the authority held by the notion of 'old wisdom.' While the speaker shows appreciation for the prehistoric way of living, in harmony with nature, he challenges the value of "knowledge derived from experience,"("East Coker") arguing that because the modern world has changed so much, convention and traditional wisdom should no longer be accepted at face value just for the fact that they always have been.
