Smth about T.S.Eliot

Burnt Norton


{A very long work, usually beginning with a geographical context}

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. Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?


...and:

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

by T.S. Elliot

excellent! but i don't think that a word like 'excellent' means what i mean to say. this is how all great art is .we need to understand that language can never stisfy one's original intent .that is why we find a number of ambiguities in browning and t s eliot.they constantly tell us that we can not say what we want to say.they expect their readers to ferret out the original purpose behind a text.