BURNT+NORTON

TS Eliot - Burnt Norton
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 * I**

code code Time present and time past code code Are both perhaps present in time future, code code And time future contained in time past. code code If all time is eternally present code code All time is unredeemable. code code What might have been is an abstraction code code Remaining a perpetual possibility code code Only in a world of speculation. code code What might have been and what has been code code Point to one end, which is always present. code code Footfalls echo in the memory code code Down the passage which we did not take code code Towards the door we never opened code code Into the rose-garden. My words echo code code Thus, in your mind. code code But to what purpose code code Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves code code I do not know. code code Other echoes code code Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow? code code Quick, said the bird, find them, find them, code code Round the corner. Through the first gate, code code Into our first world, shall we follow code code The deception of the thrush? Into our first world. code code There they were, dignified, invisible, code code Moving without pressure, over the dead leaves, code code In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air, code code And the bird called, in response to code code The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery, code code And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses code code Had the look of flowers that are looked at. code code There they were as our guests, accepted and accepting. code code So we moved, and they, in a formal pattern, code code Along the empty alley, into the box circle, code code To look down into the drained pool. code code Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged, code code And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight, code code And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly, code code The surface glittered out of heart of light, code code And they were behind us, reflected in the pool. code code Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty. code code Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children, code code Hidden excitedly, containing laughter. code code Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind code code Cannot bear very much reality. code code Time past and time future code code What might have been and what has been code code Point to one end, which is always present. code code code code

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 * II**

code code Garlic and sapphires in the mud code code Clot the bedded axle-tree. code code The trilling wire in the blood code code Sings below inveterate scars code code Appeasing long forgotten wars. code code The dance along the artery code code The circulation of the lymph code code Are figured in the drift of stars code code Ascend to summer in the tree code code We move above the moving tree code code In light upon the figured leaf code code And hear upon the sodden floor code code Below, the boarhound and the boar code code Pursue their pattern as before code code But reconciled among the stars. code code code code At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; code code Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, code code But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, code code Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, code code Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, code code There would be no dance, and there is only the dance. code code I can only say, //there// we have been: but I cannot say where. code code And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time. code code code code The inner freedom from the practical desire, code code The release from action and suffering, release from the inner code code And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded code code By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving, code code //Erhebung// without motion, concentration code code Without elimination, both a new world code code And the old made explicit, understood code code In the completion of its partial ecstasy, code code The resolution of its partial horror. code code Yet the enchantment of past and future code code Woven in the weakness of the changing body, code code Protects mankind from heaven and damnation code code Which flesh cannot endure. code code Time past and time future code code Allow but a little consciousness. code code To be conscious is not to be in time code code But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden, code code The moment in the arbour where the rain beat, code code The moment in the draughty church at smokefall code code Be remembered; involved with past and future. code code Only through time time is conquered. code code code code

code code code code code code Here is a place of disaffection code code Time before and time after code code In a dim light: neither daylight code code Investing form with lucid stillness code code Turning shadow into transient beauty code code With slow rotation suggesting permanence code code Nor darkness to purify the soul code code Emptying the sensual with deprivation code code Cleansing affection from the temporal. code code Neither plenitude nor vacancy. Only a flicker code code Over the strained time-ridden faces code code Distracted from distraction by distraction code code Filled with fancies and empty of meaning code code Tumid apathy with no concentration code code Men and bits of paper, whirled by the cold wind code code That blows before and after time, code code Wind in and out of unwholesome lungs code code Time before and time after. code code Eructation of unhealthy souls code code Into the faded air, the torpid code code Driven on the wind that sweeps the gloomy hills of London, code code Hampstead and Clerkenwell, Campden and Putney, code code Highgate, Primrose and Ludgate. Not here code code Not here the darkness, in this twittering world. code code code code Descend lower, descend only code code Into the world of perpetual solitude, code code World not world, but that which is not world, code code Internal darkness, deprivation code code And destitution of all property, code code Dessication of the world of sense, code code Evacuation of the world of fancy, code code Inoperancy of the world of spirit; code code This is the one way, and the other code code Is the same, not in movement code code But abstention from movement; while the world moves code code In appentency, on its metalled ways code code Of time past and time future. code code code code
 * III**

code code code code code code Time and the bell have buried the day, code code The black cloud carries the sun away. code code Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematis code code Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray code code Clutch and cling? code code Chill code code Fingers of yew be curled code code Down on us? After the kingfisher's wing code code Has answered light to light, and is silent, the light is still code code At the still point of the turning world. code code code code
 * IV**

code code code code code code Words move, music moves code code Only in time; but that which is only living code code Can only die. Words, after speech, reach code code Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern, code code Can words or music reach code code The stillness, as a Chinese jar still code code Moves perpetually in its stillness. code code Not the stillness of the violin, while the note lasts, code code Not that only, but the co-existence, code code Or say that the end precedes the beginning, code code And the end and the beginning were always there code code Before the beginning and after the end. code code And all is always now. Words strain, code code Crack and sometimes break, under the burden, code code Under the tension, slip, slide, perish, code code Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, code code Will not stay still. Shrieking voices code code Scolding, mocking, or merely chattering, code code Always assail them. The Word in the desert code code Is most attacked by voices of temptation, code code The crying shadow in the funeral dance, code code The loud lament of the disconsolate chimera. code code The detail of the pattern is movement, code code As in the figure of the ten stairs. code code Desire itself is movement code code Not in itself desirable; code code Love is itself unmoving, code code Only the cause and end of movement, code code Timeless, and undesiring code code Except in the aspect of time code code Caught in the form of limitation code code Between un-being and being. code code Sudden in a shaft of sunlight code code Even while the dust moves code code There rises the hidden laughter code code Of children in the foliage code code Quick now, here, now, always - code code Ridiculous the waste sad time code code Stretching before and after. code
 * V**