ELIOT, T.S.


Murder In The Cathedral :
…..
destiny waits in the hand of god,
shaping the still unshapen
i have seen these things in a shaft of sunlight
destiny waits in the hand of god,
not in the hands of statesmen

…..
the fool, fixed in his folly, may think
he can turn the wheel on which he turns

…..
the impossible is still temptation.
the impossible, the undesirable,
voices under sleep, waking a dead world,
so that the mind may not be whole in the present.
if the archbishop cannot trust the throne
he has good cause to trust none
but god alone
shall i who ruled like an eagle over doves
now take the shape of a wolf among wolves?
can i neither act nor suffer
without perdition

…..
you know and do not know, what it is to act or suffer.
you know and do not know, that acting is suffering, and suffering action.
neither does the actor suffer nor the patient act. but both are fixed
in an eternal action, an eternal patience
to which all must consent that it may be willed
and which all must suffer that they may will it,
that the pattern may subsist, that the wheel may
turn and still be forever still

…..
god gave us always some reason, some hope;
but now a new terror has soiled us, which
none can avert, none can avoid,
flowing under our feet and over the sky,
under doors down chimneys, flowing in
at the ear and the mouth and the eye.
living and partly living
god is leaving us, god is leaving us,
more pang, more pain, than birth
or death
o thomas archbishop, save us, save us
save yourself that we may be saved,
destroy yourself and we are destroyed

…..
for the true martyr is he
who has become the instrument of god
who has lost his will in the will of god
not lost it but found it
for he has found freedom in submission to god
the martyr no longer desires anything for himself
not even the glory of martyrdom
so in heaven the saints are most high
having made themselves most low
seeing themselves not as we see them
but in the light of the godhead.
from which they draw their being

…..
the peace of this world is always uncertain
unless men keep the peace of god
we wait, and the time is short
but waiting is long
peace, and be at peace with your thoughts and visions.
these things had to come to you and you to accept them.
this is your share of the eternal burden, the perpetual glory.
this is one moment, but know that the other
shall pierce you with a sudden painful joy
when the figure of gods purpose is made complete.

…..
you shall forget these things, toiling in the household
you shall remember them droning by the fire
when age and forgetfulness sweeten memory
only like a dream that has often been told
and often been changed in the telling.
they will seem unreal.
human kind cannot bear very much reality
i have therefore only make perfect my will
i give my life to the law of god
above the law of man


The Cocktail Party

…..
We die to each other daily. What we know of other people is only our memory of the moments during which we knew them. And they have changed since then. To pretend that they and we are the same is a useful and convenient social convention which must sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting we are meeting a stranger.

…..
I must tell you that I should really like to think there's something wrong with me- Because, if there isn't, then there's something wrong with the world itself-and that's much more frightening! That would be terrible. So I'd rather believe there is something wrong with me, that could be put right

…..
There was a door

And I could not open it. I could not touch the handle.

Why could I not walk out of my prison?

What is hell? Hell is oneself,

Hell is alone, the other figures in it

Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from

And nothing to Escape to. One is always alone.
…..
And if all that is meaningless, I want to be cured

Of a craving for something I cannot find

And of the shame of never finding it.

…..
Reilly: The human condition...they may remember the vision they have had, but they cease to regret it, maintain themselves by the common routine, learn to avoid excessive expectation, Become tolerant of themselves and others, Giving and taking, in the usual actions what there is to give and take. They do not repine; Are contented with the morning that separates and with the evening that brings together for casual talk before the fire. Two people who know they do not understand each other, breeding children whom they do not understand and who will never understand them.

…..
Half the harm that is done in this world

Is due to people who want to feel important.
…..
Everyone’s alone—or so it seems to me.

They make noises, and think they are talking to each other;

They make faces, and think they understand each other,

And I’m sure they don’t. Is that delusion?

Can we only love something created in our own imaginations?
…..