'At the still point of the turning world' : Four quartets and the philosophical Eliot

Abstract

This study argues that the policy of T.S. Eliot may be viewed as a continued poetic engagement with the concept of a meaningful centre and that between the 'Prnfrock' volume and Four Quartets Eliot implicitly reassesses the views expressed in his doctoral dissertation Knowledge and Experience in the Philosophy of F.H. Bradley with regards to the Absolute, namely that, whereas the existence of ultimate truth and of the Absolute may be postulated, these remain forever outside the remit of human experience. Whereas the earlier poetry expresses the angst of modern consciousness and its exile from meaningful existence in the face or the collapsed centre, by the time of Four Quartets Eliot comes to assert the validity of the moment when the eternal intersects the temporal plane and human existence (both individual and collective) is imbued with true meaning. ln this context the Ariel poems, and 'Marina' in particular, acquire the value of a significant point of transition Moreover, in engaging with the notion of the Absolute Eliot also recognises the paradox of a poetry which tries to express what is beyond expression. His poetic itinerary is therefore also a search for a language which essays to represent the non-representational. Four Quartets represent Eliot's answer to that problem, largely through symbolist methods and Eliot's own concept of the auditory imagination. Eliot's quest for a centre pregnant with meaning therefore culminates in the image of 'the still point at the centre of the turning world'.