EAST+COKER

code TS ELIOT - EAST COKER code code code code I. code code

code code In my beginning is my end. In succession code code Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, code code Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place code code Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass. code code Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires, code code Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth code code Which is already flesh, fur, and faeces, code code Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf. code code Houses live and die: there is a time for building code code And a time for living and for generation code code And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane code code And to shake the wainscot where the field mouse trots code code And to shake the tattered arras woven with a silent motto. code code code code In my beginning is my end. Now the light falls code code Across the open field, leaving the deep lane code code Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon, code code Where you lean against a bank while a van passes, code code And the deep lane insists on the direction code code Into the village, in the electric heat code code Hypnotized. In a warm haze the sultry light code code Is absorbed, not reflected, by grey stone. code code The dahlias sleep in the empty silence. code code Wait for the early owl. code code In that open field code code If you do not come too close, if you do not come too close, code code On a summer midnight, you can hear the music code code Of the weak pipe and the little drum code code And see them dancing around the bonfire code code The association of man and woman code code In daunsinge, signifying matrimonie— code code A dignified and commodiois sacrament. code code Two and two, necessarye coniunction, code code Holding eche other by the hand or the arm code code Whiche betokeneth concorde. Round and round the fire code code Leaping through the flames, or joined in circles, code code Rustically solemn or in rustic laughter code code Lifting heavy feet in clumsy shoes, code code Earth feet, loam feet, lifted in country mirth code code Mirth of those long since under earth code code Nourishing the corn. Keeping time, code code Keeping the rhythm in their dancing code code As in their living in the living seasons code code The time of the seasons and the constellations code code The time of milking and the time of harvest code code The time of the coupling of man and woman code code And that of beasts. Feet rising and falling. code code Eating and drinking. Dung and death. code code Dawn points, and another day code code Prepares for heat and silence. Out at sea the dawn wind code code Wrinkles and slides. I am here code code Or there, or elsewhere. In my beginning. code code code code

code code II. code code code code What is the late November doing code code With the disturbance of the spring code code And creatures of the summer heat, code code And snowdrops writhing under feet code code And hollyhocks that aim too high code code Red into grey and tumble down code code Late roses filled with early snow? code code Thunder rolled by the rolling stars code code Simulates triumphal cars code code Deployed in constellated wars code code Scorpion fights against the sun code code Until the Sun and Moon go down code code Comets weep and Leonids fly code code Hunt the heavens and the plains code code Whirled in a vortex that shall bring code code The world to that destructive fire code code Which burns before the ice-cap reigns code code code code That was a way of putting it—not very satisfactory code code A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion, code code Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle code code With words and meanings. The poetry does not matter code code It was not (to start again) what one had expected. code code What was to be the value of the long looked forward to, code code Long hope for calm, the autumnal serenity code code And the wisdom of age? Had they deceived us code code Or deceived themselves, the quiet-voiced elders, code code bequeathing us merely a receipt for deceit? code code The serenity only a deliberate hebitude, code code The wisdom only the knowledge of dead secrets code code Useless in the darkness into which they peered code code Or from which they turned their eyes. There is, it seems to us, code code At best, only a limited value code code In the knowledge derived from experience. code code The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies, code code For the pattern is new in every moment code code And every moment is a new and shocking code code Valuation of all we have been. We are only undeceived code code Of that which, deceiving, could no longer harm. code code In the middle, not only in the middle of the way code code But all the way, in a dark wood, in a bramble, code code On the edge of a grimpen, where is no secure foothold, code code And menaced by monsters, fancy lights, code code Risking enchantment. Do not let me hear code code Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly, code code Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession, code code Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God. code code The only wisdom we can hope to acquire code code Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless. code code code code The houses are all gone under the sea. code code

code code The dancers are all gone under the hill. code code code code

code code III. code code code code O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark, code code The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant, code code The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters, code code The generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers, code code Distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees, code code Industrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark, code code And dark the Sun and Moon, and the Almanach de Gotha code code And the Stock Exchange Gazette, the Directory of Directors, code code And cold the sense and lost the motive of action. code code And we all go with them, into the silent funeral, code code Nobody's funeral, for there is no one to bury. code code I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you code code Which shall be the darkness of God. As, in a theatre, code code The lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed code code With a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness, code code And we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama code code And the bold imposing facade are all being rolled away— code code Or as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations code code And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence code code And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen code code Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about; code code Or when, under ether, the mind is conscious but conscious of nothing— code code I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope code code For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love code code For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith code code But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. code code Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: code code So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing. code code Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning. code code The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry, code code The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy code code Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony code code Of death and birth. code code code code You say I am repeating code code Something I have said before. I shall say it again, code code Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there, code code To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not, code code You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy. code code In order to arrive at what you do not know code code You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance. code code In order to possess what you do not possess code code You must go by the way of dispossession. code code In order to arrive at what you are not code code You must go through the way in which you are not. code code And what you do not know is the only thing you know code code And what you own is what you do not own code code And where you are is where you are not. code code code code

code code IV. code code code code The wounded surgeon plies the steel code code That questions the distempered part; code code Beneath the bleeding hands we feel code code The sharp compassion of the healer's art code code Resolving the enigma of the fever chart. code code code code Our only health is the disease code code If we obey the dying nurse code code Whose constant care is not to please code code But to remind of our, and Adam's curse, code code And that, to be restored, our sickness must grow worse. code code code code The whole earth is our hospital code code Endowed by the ruined millionaire, code code Wherein, if we do well, we shall code code Die of the absolute paternal care code code That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere. code code code code The chill ascends from feet to knees, code code The fever sings in mental wires. code code If to be warmed, then I must freeze code code And quake in frigid purgatorial fires code code Of which the flame is roses, and the smoke is briars. code code code code The dripping blood our only drink, code code The bloody flesh our only food: code code In spite of which we like to think code code That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood— code code Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good. code code code code

code code V. code code code code So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years— code code Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres code code Trying to learn to use words, and every attempt code code Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure code code Because one has only learnt to get the better of words code code For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which code code One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture code code Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate code code With shabby equipment always deteriorating code code In the general mess of imprecision of feeling, code code Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer code code By strength and submission, has already been discovered code code Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope code code To emulate—but there is no competition— code code There is only the fight to recover what has been lost code code And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions code code That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss. code code For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business. code code code code Home is where one starts from. As we grow older code code The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated code code Of dead and living. Not the intense moment code code Isolated, with no before and after, code code But a lifetime burning in every moment code code And not the lifetime of one man only code code But of old stones that cannot be deciphered. code code There is a time for the evening under starlight, code code A time for the evening under lamplight code code (The evening with the photograph album). code code Love is most nearly itself code code When here and now cease to matter. code code code code Old men ought to be explorers code code Here and there does not matter code code We must be still and still moving code code Into another intensity code code For a further union, a deeper communion code code Through the dark cold and empty desolation, code code The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters code code Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning. code