Sunday, August 28, 2011







BUIRNT NORTON
(the beginning of No. 1 of 'Four Quartets')
T.S. Eliot


I
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
                              But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.

3 comments:

  1. "All time is unredeemable..." Where will you go with that? So much fun to see your themes at their inception! - David

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  2. The idea of time being unredeemable is the part of the poem that touched me the deepest. To think of anything as unredeemable is frightening. I like to think there is always time to make amends. Perhaps not, and where does that leave us?

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  3. Have to think about that... - David

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