I find these poems engrossing. The discussion of the centre of quietness and timelessness that Eliot feels is the spiritual core within ourselves reminds me of the approach of Teresa of Avila who also had an awareness of this through her mystical experiences.
I've located one more interesting source to share. If you type in "T S Eliot The four quartets notes" into google the fourth item given is:
jbburnett.com | ts eliot: four quartets | notes".
This gives access to some very interesting elaboration (in fact, possibly an over-elaboration) of the significance of many of Eliot's poetic images. One that I found interesting is the gloss by Eliot himself on "Erhebung" which occurs in Part 2 of "Burnt Norton": i.e.:
"Erhebung is an important term in German philosophy. Kant (Critique of Judgment, 228-9), for instance, speaks of the beautiful as the “symbol of the morally good”, and discusses how the harmonizing of voices which takes place in aesthetic perception, as opposed to the dissonance of contradiction, brings about an ennobling elevation (Erhebung) beyond the senses in the direction of the intelligible. This ennobling elevation places the aesthetic in a mediating role, defining it as that which points beyond itself toward the supersensible domain of the ethical. Kant wishes to grant to the aesthetic both a final and a mediating function, where horizontal and vertical planes join each other."
Hello Lin2412! We look forward to your posts!
