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Eliot's 'Four Quartets' and Swinburne's 'A Rosary.' (T.S. Eliot; August Swinburne)

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From: The Explicator
Date: 19940101
Author:Maxwell, Catherine

T.S. Eliot suggested in a letter that his 'Four Quartets' were influenced by his 'New Hampshire,' Rudyard Kipling's 'They' and the opening to Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 'The Lost Bower.' However, several similarities are noted between Eliot's poem and August Swinburne's 'A Rosary.' Swinburne's poem refers directly to a rose garden, which he describes in great detail. He also uses the rose garden to meditate on time and reflect both love and visionary experience. These characteristics are evoked by Eliot's descriptions of roses and a rose garden in 'Four Quartets.'

The image of the rose ...

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