FOUR QUARTETS BY T.S. ELIOT

Four Quartets (1943) was written at the end of T.S. Eliot’s poetic career and is considered by some to be his greatest work. The Four Quartets reflects the four seasons and the four elements, with each section having its own attendant landscape. These include the gardens of Burnt Norton, the open fields of East Coker, the small group of rocks that make up The Dry Salvages, and the village of Little Gidding. All of these spaces reflect facets of England in the 1940s while also serving as Eliot’s internal environment, a place where he wrestles with the themes of death, nature and time. The backdrop of the Second World War adds an eerie pertinence to Eliot’s musings as he contemplates his own demise, yet the poem is rarely despairing. ‘What we call the beginning is often the end,’ he states, ‘And to make an end is to make a beginning./ The end is where we start from.’

Contrary to Eliot’s suggestion, we will start at the beginning and work our way to the end (perhaps to look back on the beginning with new eyes). The study takes place over four weeks every Monday with a break in the middle:

26 May: Burnt Norton
2 June: East Coker
9 June – break, no meeting
16 June: The Dry Salvages
23 June: Little Gidding

JOINING DETAILS:

• Four meeting study led by Karina Jakubowicz on Zoom
• Mondays, 26 May – 23 June (with no meeting on 9 June), 6.00-8.00 pm (BST)
• £130 for four two-hour meetings
• Please use this link to share details