Alec Guinness reads Four Quartets by TS Eliot

Alec Guinness reads Four Quartets by TS Eliot for BBC Radio in 1971.
The start times for each of the poem are:
00:10 Burnt Norton
10:33 East Coker
24:18 The Dry Salvages
38:32 Little Gidding
You can download and keep the audio at / 4quartets
The full text of all four poems is available at www.coldbacon.com/poems/fq.html
The Waste Land - also read by Guinness for the BBC (possibly in 1958) can be heard at • The Waste Land (TS Eli...

[@thefisherking78]

These poems changed my life

[@thefisherking78]

This man could read IP addresses and I'd be 100% here for it

[@js1817]

About 2 years ago I read the Four Quartets for the first time and it made me angry. I was frustrated. I thought it was deliberate nonsense from a fraud trying to pass himself off as clever. But others said they got something out of it, so I would go for hour-long walks in the summer evenings and listen to this recording. I got to know every word. I even read a bit of various commentaries. Gradually, as I read more poetry and spent more time with this poem in paricular, I came to an understanding of it. I love it now, it's one of my favourite poems, and I love Guiness' voice and his performance here. ❤

[@jameslatin2939]

You give me hope

[@szilagyipeter6698]

His voice could be the voice of the Universe.

[@danielsmit11]

Ironically same could be said of his arch nemesis Darth Vader aka James Earle Jones-ironic isn't it?

[@seanatkinson770]

What do you mean "could be "?

[@katmandew2152]

Could be but I prefer Louis Armstrong.

[@jamesgorman8751]

It is. " Luke!.. trust the Force! "

[@alexandradane3672]

And do also listen to T S Eliot himself reciting his Four Quartets . I believe it is available on You Tube . I found it quite wonderful to hear the voice of the author reciting his work - for his must be THE the best vocal expression of his work ? Well done also to Alec Guinness.

[@georgesfeydeaufeydeau6235]

It really is a shame that Alec Guinness did not read everything. I mean everything ever written. It's even more of a shame that he actually read so little. Well, at least he read very good things.

[@stephen5119]

Don't worry, with the assistance of AI and LLMs you will be able to have him read anything you want.

[@timkjazz]

1) Burnt Norton 00:10 2) East Coker 10:33 3) The Dry Salvages 24:18 4) Little Gidding 38:32

[@ruivog]

Thank you.

[@jamesjgregorio2622]

Thank you. That is helpful, particularly if you are reading along.

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

Ah thanks for this Tim - so sorry for not doing it myself sooner. Have now used your timings to create 'Key Moments' marking the start of each poem. Much appreciated. Tom

[@fabricio_santana]

One of the best narrators I've seen so far. Great pacing, stressing, timbre, pitch, everything.

[@janevessey7233]

I studied this poem years ago for A -Level, and it took my breath away, I still return to it, its beauty and truths, fantastic imagery and the hopeful message of the fire and the rose being one. I teach poetry now, and will be eternally grateful for this inspiration. AG reads it so tenderly, it is almost heart breaking. Thankyou❤

[@Simpaulme]

Though best of all is to read it aloud to yourself?

[@Raven-Claws88]

An incredible actor with a phenomenal voice reads a timeless text. This is a joy to listen to. Sir Alec surely had one of the most memorable and melodious voices of the 20th century.

[@mgenthbjpafa6413]

Greatest poem in English language...from where I am.

[@augustosarmentodeoliveira3023]

I'm an active reader and writer of poetry, and only recently I've discovered that Four Quartets is my favorite poem of all time. It's Eliot's peak.

[@slydoll7877]

Really and truly.

[@terencemeikle534]

The ideal reciter for these works. Beautiful and deeply moving. ❤️

[@annemuffet9360]

The first time I heard Alec Guinness' voice as a child watching Dr Zhivago I thought it the most beautiful voice I'd heard for narration and now for poetry. I think Eliot would've approved Alec's voice as better than his own for reading his poetry.

[@thomasmartin369]

Guinness and Eliot were both geniuses but Eliot couldn't read his own work for toffee! He sounds like a dotardly old Parish vicar, not unlike the one Guinness himself plays in Kind Hears and Coronets. XD

[@timmynaylor4963]

I believe the best voice for Four Quartets is your own inner voice, although I find that listening to recordings like this can help with the understanding of the work. I've been reading Four Quartets for 40 years and still hav'nt finished understanding this poetry. I don't want to finish.

[@tarnopol]

Terrific comment.

[@kittycateleven]

I agree 100%. I've been studying these quartets my whole life - just drawn to them. I like discovering them with my inner voice

[@Dropthebeatonit]

i love this

[@lawrencekaiser7898]

Yes--agree with all of you

[@DoodlesMusic]

If you can get a ticket, Ralph Fiennes is currently on tour in the UK, directing himself in The Four Quartets.

[@patrickzhao7591]

thanks for posting. this is what soul sounds like.

[@charmainet5955]

A beautiful reading. I prefer this one to Eliot's own recording, to be honest. Guinness captures the rhythm of the words more nicely with his measured voice and thoughtful pauses.

[@benreadspoetry7958]

Sublime. Utterly sublime.

[@mauriciomachado7929]

This is painfully beautiful

[@antonk6359]

The poetry was astoundingly good, the narration was marvelous.

[@ahmetdogan5685]

This is the right voice for Ts Eliot poems.

[@ruthcooke3076]

Oh how wonderful to find this here, thank you!

[@GingerCrow]

How wonderful, I wasn't aware of this. I've always loved his readings of Prufrock and The Waste Land, so this really is a pleasure. Thank you.

[@JHarder1000]

This is the voice of the Holy Ghost.

[@drmpsinha6461]

Alec Guinness's reading of The Four Quartets is superb . His reading is clear even to an Indian like me . Besides, he has followed Eliot's style of reading meticulously .

[@abooswalehmosafeer173]

Wow. What a Voice!!A voice that adds significance to words that are already deep and meaningful.What a Tool of a Voice that resonates...Deep thick full ..One writes and another Recites.I enjoy this Echo...

[@trevorbailey1486]

I'd like to add my thanks, Tom Robinson, for making this recording available to so wide an audience. Our appreciation of it is obvious to anyone taking a cusory look at Comments and Views of your site. (By coincidence, I bought this recording some few years ago from another enthusiast who had obtained the BBC tapes. It was the best fiver I ever spent!)

[@neil5568]

"These aren't the Anglo-Saxons you're looking for".

[@dawnadriennetaylor970]

I wish people on the BBC could still enunciate and convey like this. I loved this poem at school.

[@davidgardiner6123]

+Dawn Adrienne Taylor His enunciation should be required listening for newsreaders. Oh to replace the likes of Rita Chakrabarty with someone who could speak like Alec Guinness.

[@Agui007]

It's all down to dumbing down now with reality tv shows.

[@markofsaltburn]

@@Agui007 Take a look at BBC Genome and you’ll find that televisual banality has been a constant since the invention of the medium.

[@SamPhappalapa]

10:30 East Coker 24:20 The Dry Salvages 38:31 Little Gidding

[@paddymeboy]

Mesmerising.

[@TomorrowWeLive]

First few time this I didn't get this poem, but the more I re-read and re-listen, the more it reveals. The same thing happened with The Wasteland. Eliot is like that--the meaning grows on you, like a briar spreading its thorny shoots through your mind and memory.

[@toersoy]

This is a very valuable recording. Thanks for sharing.

[@ruivog]

What a double gem. Thank you.

[@sandiarnp]

Eternally beautiful words what a master

[@PeterSmith-by2cy]

this is a wonderful reading

[@velvetclaw2316]

Sublime ❤

[@keithdonovan5236]

Just brilliant.

[@richardmindemann6935]

Eliot is the Shakespeare of the 20th century.

[@stephengontis1517]

Yea verily.

[@peterrees6335]

'The darkness in this twittering world'.... He saw the future.

[@paddymeboy]

He saw what for him was the present! Things don't change all that much - the world is always 'darkening'.

[@kingaborycka4421]

This voice is perfect for the poems!

[@garypuckettmuse]

Magnificent.!! Also recommended ts eliot's own reading of this which is not as cool and precise but more musical. Also on youtube.

[@muttleo]

Mellifluous soundings adorned with dulcet tones

[@dwanderful1]

Great reading thanks

[@HughJason]

Thanks very much indeed for this.

[@bobh.9035]

Among the greatest voices of our time, of any time. He blesses us with this fine reading....

[@robertmadison2752]

He reads these poems better than Eliot did. And who knows if this was not the voice Eliot heard in his own head? I like to think so.

[@terencemeikle534]

Agreed. Eliot's own recitation merely depresses me. Alec is glorious in these works.

[@TomorrowWeLive]

​@@terencemeikle534 poets are rarely the best readers of their own work

[@c.s.hayden3022]

The part in Little Gidding that says “Fire and water deride/The sacrifice that we denied” always makes me think of Emerson’s Divinity School Address, its rejection of the group communion ritual in favor of a more personal communion with nature. I can’t imagine Eliot would’ve been too sympathetic, or he would have viewed that as the first step of a cultural unraveling. Who’s to say exactly what was going through his head when he wrote that, but it just makes me think of it given the general direction of the poem.

[@soleaguirre100]

beautiful...sublime ✨✨✨👌🏼🌷

[@LendallPitts]

Interesting how the first lines of Burnt Norton anticipate some current discussions about time and time symmetry.

[@edwardbackman744]

Ive been listening to this recording for months i just learned this is Obi Wan omg

[@tomquinn607]

OBI?

[@stevemills1960]

Old Ben Kenobi?

[@katelamberg9544]

magnificent reading.

[@JO-rv2ei]

The tongue swelling in beauty.

[@alexharvey2943]

Thank you.

[@katmandew2152]

Heaven

[@ofelia829]

Thank you. 🍃

[@hannahrice783]

East Coker- part 1: 12:03 part 3: 16:49

[@charlesrae3793]

I came here after seeing Terence Davies mentioning this; what a wonderful discovery.

[@Bowman120]

With only 19 likes, the Beeb are probably not losing too much revenue here! But thank you for sharing, I think Sir Alec had a better affinity with Eliot than anyone else, though still have a lasting memory of Fiona Shaw reading the Wasteland at Wilton's Theatre and Music Hall, to help fund its restoration.

[@TGI42813]

Capital! Where has this Elliot fellow been hiding? What a voice! Seriously...will there ever be anything approaching this quality on the telly? Methinks not...

[@madeleine6204]

The voice is the brilliant Alec Guinness. The words are the brilliant T.S. Elliot

[@agarryking]

Wow.

[@jeremyyoung1386]

I'm not sure whether I should thank you for posting this or Grey Cortina, so I shall thank you for both.

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

+jeremy young haha - thanks, greatly appreciated. I like to think of Grey Cortina as my own contrinbution to the world of letters - and very much on a par with Four Quartets :-)

[@TomorrowWeLive]

I think that if I were smart enought to figure all this out, it would probably be the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

[@markofsaltburn]

It’s note a puzzle to be solved, it’s a work of art to be experienced. It ensures, like all great art, precisely because it CAN’T be resolved.

[@rogercarroll2551]

Or perhaps the lack of any meaning.....

[@matthewfrancis3959]

This is infinitely better than the Ralph Fiennes performance.

[@Simpaulme]

No surprises - though I haven't heard Ralph, I have heard Jeremy Irons!

[@xanthias2001]

I prefer Guinness, but Fiennes gives a more accessible performance if you’re not already familiar with 4Q. As a staged performance, he demonstrates more than is possible in a radio reading - so it’s easier to follow. But it’s a darker, Beckettian interpretation which takes you on a journey towards the light, and leaves you unsure whether the light can be captured…. Guinness’s reading has a warmth to it which lends the light greater certainty. So I think it’s closer to Eliot’s intention and one I’d prefer to live with…

[@ilirllukaci5345]

I heard that the author admitted that the poems referred to the last 4 string quartets of Beethoven. My theory was that they were also sequential. Burnt Norton was op 130. The color of op 130 always sounded a bit acrid to me. East Coker was op 131, Coker as in C. Dry Salvages was op 132, the title referring to the recovered convalescent, Beethoven himself, that gives thanks in the Heiliger Dankgesang. And Little Gidding, the smaller scaled op 135. Has This ever been confirmed?

[@ilirllukaci5345]

"In 1994, on a dusty bookshelf at a friend's house, I stumbled across an old tape recording of Ted Hughes reading my favourite poem, TS Eliot's Four Quartets. I was struck by the power of hearing the poem read aloud. When you read it to yourself silently, you can appreciate Eliot's use of alliteration, or the way in which he cuts the cloth of his ideas in different metrical patterns - but the appreciation is cerebral. When you hear it spoken, the musical impact of the language, metres and rhymes crystallises the meaning and releases the emotion. The more I listened to Hughes' recording, the more I became convinced that the poem was written to be read out loud, and that hearing it made the material more accessible. I began to wonder how you could make it into a live performance. With this in mind, I approached Stephen Dillane, one the few actors I knew who would not be daunted by the scale and potential loneliness of the undertaking. And so, three years ago, rehearsals began, fitted around our other work commitments. It was only by chance that we discovered - in Lyndall Gordon's book on Eliot's later career, Eliot's New Life - that the poem was inspired by one of Beethoven's late string quartets. Once the initial connection had been made between the two pieces, I started to research them both, with a view to working out how to put them together. The idea of an evening that somehow combined a reading of the poem with a performance of the string quartet was born. This discovery fed our work on the musicality of the poem, encouraging us to be as attentive to its form as to its content. Some days we rehearsed the poem exclusively with metre, rhythm and rhyme in mind, as if it were a musical score and Stephen were a singer. And we had to consider whether to do it in a theatrical or musical environment. The concert hall appealed more than a theatre, because the simplicity of a concert recital, with its emphasis on the aural more than the visual, seemed best suited to our purpose of communicating the poem without theatrical embellishment or illustration. Also, as this was our first attempt at presenting the poem, we wanted a protected environment in which to try it out. Beethoven composed his string quartet, Opus 132 in A minor, in the winter of 1824-52. He was 54 and recovering from a serious bowel condition from which he had nearly died. As a result, he entitled the central movement "a song of thanksgiving ... offered to the divinity by a convalescent", and the second section of this movement bears the inscription: "Feeling new strength." Over 100 years later, in March 1931, TS Eliot, aged 47, wrote to Stephen Spender: "I have the A minor Quartet on the gramophone, and I find it quite inexhaustible to study. There is a sort of heavenly, or at least more than human gaiety, about some of his later things which one imagines might come to oneself as the fruit of reconciliation and relief after immense suffering; I should like to get something of that into verse before I die." Eliot began the Four Quartets in 1935 and worked on it for years, finishing it in 1941. Whereas the composer wrote one quartet, with five movements, the poet wrote four pieces, each divided into five sections. Like Beethoven's work, Eliot's poem was triggered by personal suffering, although not of a physical nature. It was probably connected to his separation from his wife, Vivienne, in 1932; her mental illness; and the rekindling of a platonic relationship with his first love, the American university teacher Emily Hale. The first poem in the series, Burnt Norton, opens with an image of a couple walking in a rose garden and is full of regret for what might have been. At this point, Eliot's concerns appear personal. However, in 1939, when he was working on the second poem, East Coker, war had broken out and by 1940 Eliot was working in London as an air-raid warden during the Blitz. The climactic verse of the final poem, Little Gidding, is set at night in a London street just after a raid. By the end of the four poems, Eliot had moved from the personal to addressing what he described in the poem as the "distress of nations". If suffering is the trigger for both pieces, then faith offers the shared antidote of "reconciliation and relief" that Eliot wrote to Spender about. Both men were practising Christians, and their belief underpinned much of their later work. Beethoven was a Catholic, and Eliot famously converted to Anglicanism aged 38, nine years before writing Four Quartets. In 1933 Eliot said he wanted to get "beyond poetry, as Beethoven in his later works, strove to get beyond music". I am sure that it was Beethoven's religious aims in the long and intense central movement of the quartet that Eliot had in mind when he wrote these words. Beethoven had been studying liturgical music - Palestrina in particular - while he was working on his Missa Solemnis, which he completed two years before starting work on the quartet. This study influenced the central movement of the quartet, which is based, unusually, on an ancient chorale melody and mode. Similarly, Eliot's poem had a strong religious purpose and referenced Christianity in many forms - from direct quotations of the medieval mystic Juliana of Norwich, to the setting of the final poem in the village of Little Gidding, which was the site in the 17th century for a persecuted religious community. Interestingly, however, both men were also drawn to the philosophy of eastern religions, with which they supplemented their own Christianity. Eliot quotes from the Hindu text, the Bhagavad-Gita, in Four Quartets. Beethoven was influenced by the older Hindu scripture, the Rig-Veda. In his diary the composer jotted down a line from the Rig-Veda commentary about the idea of God being "free from all passion and desire". Eliot expresses similar sentiments in his poem when he writes about: The inner freedom from the practical desire The release from action and suffering, release from the inner And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving. Both men were at the peak of their creativity when they wrote these two pieces, and were determined to push the boundaries of their media. And both were aware of the time pressure placed on them by mortality, Beethoven because of his deafness and Eliot because of the war. Other than the A minor quartet, Eliot's favourite Beethoven pieces were the Seventh Symphony and the Coriolan Overture. In 1949 he chose the second movement of the Seventh Symphony for his funeral, thereby cementing his connection with the composer. We will never know what Beethoven would have made of Eliot's poetry, but no doubt, the musician who wrote that he "would rather write 10,000 notes than one letter of the alphabet" would have appreciated the scope of Eliot's achievement with words in Four Quartets. And perhaps Eliot's own ambivalence about the "letters of the alphabet" would have drawn the two men together: So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years [...] Trying to learn to use words, and every attempt Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure Because one had only learnt to get the better of words For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which One is no longer disposed to say it. Indeed, Eliot's poem often celebrates the power of music almost as if it were a superior form to words in its ability to capture the timeless moment: "... music heard so deeply/That it is not heard at all, but you are the music/ While the music lasts." When I began envisaging how to put Eliot's words with Beethoven's music, it was impossible to imagine mixing the two up in the same cocktail - for example, with Beethoven providing the background music to Eliot's words. The cleanest solution seemed to be to perform each piece in its own right, separate from the other, with the words followed by the music. In this we were following Eliot's lead in letting music have the final say. · The Pacifica Quartet and Stephen Dillane perform Beethoven's String Quartet Op 132 and TS Eliot's Four Quartets at the Wigmore Hall, London WC1 (020-7935 2141), on Monday"

[@ilirllukaci5345]

Personally I think I'm still sticking with my own theory. The opus 127 is still somewhat transitional even after the opus 95. That leaves 4 quartets.

[@ilirllukaci5345]

The quoted article is from Katie Mitchell. I added only the quotes, hence the edit.

[@oneinasquillion]

@@ilirllukaci5345 fascinating and thoughtful provoking. Did you see the events in question?

[@ilirllukaci5345]

​​@@oneinasquillionthanks, but the only events in question that I witnessed were listening to those quartets within the 4 walls of my bedroom as a teenager and the 4 walls of my mind ever since. And most recently reading from a slim pb edition of the TS Elliot while flat on my back on the shore of Southgate canal in Coral Springs, Florida.

[@janewrin1830]

He is my favourite T S Eliot reader, by a country mile. I wish I could download it to my phone, but I have this on LP.

[@letmetellyousomething123]

You should be able to stream it on one of the streaming sites. KZbin music or Spotify

[@johnbattalgazi2108]

You can download this and convert it into a sound format

[@personalsigh]

Find a KZbin you MP3 conversion website and then download the mp3

[@janewrin1830]

@@personalsigh Thanks buy I don't own an MP3 player.

[@personalsigh]

@@janewrin1830 your phone will play mp3s

[@Certamaniac]

Ah yes. An elegant poem, for a more civilized age.

[@noahfranks984]

looooollllll noice

[@markofsaltburn]

Where was civility to be found between 1936, when Eliot first started these four poems, and 1943, when they were published? There was no place to hide in the world at that time that was untainted by the worst kind of savagery, and the mere act of hiding was itself an act of betrayal almost as evil. It wasn’t the complexity of Eliot’s enquiry that kept the light on, nor his faith, it was the military prowess of the county of his birth.

[@MadBiker-vj5qj]

Nice upload. :-) I'll dowlnoad them from SoundCloud to listen to at leasure.

[@bobjohnson4318]

Since I am not very familiar with the work of Alec Guiness, all I can imagine is Obiwan Kenobi reading Luke a bedtime story one of those nights not covered in Star Wars. :)

[@sallydarley9812]

Oh, dear. My husband has never seen Star Wars. Sir Alec Guinness hated it!

[@leowals8382]

Bob Johnson l

[@paulwolstenholme1673]

brilliant...u b8stard, i'll never be able to listen to this rendition without laughing.....god thta's so funny now

[@sallydarley9812]

Thanks, Mr Robinson. Sally.

[@user-uq5lx9rz2o]

惹き付けられて止まらない。 離してもらえません。どうしたら良いんでしょう・・・。

[@NarcisoMR]

Absolutely

[@nikyrathbone]

East Coker is magnificent. It's years since I last read Four Quartets At the still point of the turning world The wind blows indecisive and the bias sways On all sides equal, Anonymity Covers past and present to the end of days.

[@michaelwu7678]

Niky Rathbone Hello, these last few lines are wonderful. Did you write them?

[@incrediblesimilarity5858]

@@michaelwu7678 No, it was written by TS Eliot. I hope this helps, click on the following link to understand more about this poetry. www.brainpickings.org/2015/11/18/t-s-eliot-reads-burnt-norton/

[@victoriaw7436]

10:35 In my beginning is my end

[@liammahoney6345]

A great interpretation I wonder was Alec an admirer of Eliot or just a consummate performer, whatever it's a great rendition....

[@mleftakes]

Little Gidding: 38:36

[@sandiarnp]

Meeting an old compound ghost in concord MA- was this Bertrand Russell his old professor who Eliot and his wife lived w briefly? -Russell had an affair w her while they were living there…

[@salvadoresalvadore3268]

Heard from this from guston

[@NarcisoMR]

Funny to see your profile picture and, at the same time, notice that you monetized the video

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

Fair point well made. Sorry about ads having interrupted these poems up until now - they must have been really annoying. They're now turned off, wth apologies.

[@aranyakm]

Reminds me of the Quran recitation scene from Lawrence of Arabia.

[@gunanidhichhatria6397]

Timepresent Andtimepresent Rose,bettersky Theminglingstar Movementofcloud Tutningshadow Speaksupchurches, Temples.....sunflowers Kingfisher Violin, Tension,desert Cryingshadow

[@TheDionysianFields]

If you play at .75x it's like Obiwan Kenobi reading to you. Not that I don't enjoy it at full speed.

[@VoyagesDuSpectateur]

25:35 It should be "horseshoe crab" not "hermit crab".

Mr. Obrien, I hope that you are not confusing the great Alec Guinness with TS Elliot? I say this because you mentioned the voice.

[@tsubarashiii6251]

5:30 17:37 18:35 19:31 44:08 44:54 13:45

[@user-uq5lx9rz2o]

様々な顔が色々とありすぎる、かの人。附いていけない、でも追い掛ける・・・。

[@didinx8417]

Douglas Murray brought me here.

[@TomorrowWeLive]

Where from, if you don't mind my asking?

[@noheroespublishing1907]

Obi-Wan musing to himself, out alone, before the twin setting suns, on the sand dunes of Tatooine; a long exile, a long time, and nothing but memories to reflect on.

[@the_zest3849]

Here luke, I will read to you from the journal of the whills

[@user-ko5nt4ym2l]

21:45

[@davidfrederickyelland9233]

I'm not sure the BBC would be quite so thrilled to know that their copyright was being infringed. Sadly the Beeb are probably too busy pulling down all the other stuff that the tax payer should be receiving money for :(

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

+David Yelland . I'd like to hope TS Eliot and Alec Guinness would be thrilled to know this classic recording can be heard once again by those of us who love it. The BBC deleted this from their catalogue of purchasable recordings many years ago, have never broadcast it again, and it's been mouldering away in a vault somewhere ever since. This recording was paid for by the nation, including me, back in 1971. Since we can't legitimately buy it or hear it on the radio in 2015, why shouldn't the nation have access to it once again? The day the copyright owners puts this back on sale to the general public, I'll gladly remove this video and urge everybody to go buy it.

[@clairebannister4749]

+David Yelland yeah - screw them - they took down Jeremy irons' awesome version after only 6 days on their iplayer.

[@ur.kr.2814]

@@TomRobinsonMusic What, this is no longer available anywhere else!? I need to download it then. Really don't want to lose access to this.

[@marypartridge5154]

We are all beasts with a spark of God. But the beast in us often kills the spark of god. The beast in Hitler and Putin has got them in chains.

[@moctopusmoctopus8791]

Thanks, Mary

[@brian_nirvana]

if there was no such thing a religion this would still exist and we would interpret it a different way.

[@TomorrowWeLive]

Wrong. This poem could never have been written without the Christian tradition it comes from and embodies.

[@stephengontis1517]

I agree with "Tomorrow We Live." Four Quartets is a CHRISTIAN poem. Hence, no Christianity, no Four Quartets.

[@Vingul]

@@TomorrowWeLive o7

[@paddymeboy]

You may be right in the sense that, if we can judge from the BBC presentation last year, it is possible nowadays to experience the poem without actually realising it is Christian! The fact remains that it was conceived as a Christian poem, and could not have been created without that stimulus; and to experience it without awareness of its Christian meaning is only to half-experience it.

[@theophilusparabombastus5092]

Sorry Obiwan Kenobee cannot do TS Eliot. He sucks.

[@irishgitful]

+Theophilus Parabombastus You are a cretin.

[@PaulZink]

+Theophilus Parabombastus I'm sure you can do much better, yes.

[@johndrayton8728]

+irishgitful He's a troll - ignore him

[@Konrad_Wallenrod]

+Theophilus Parabombastus so long as you can troll!

[@johnpetley-jones9563]

Your attention-seeking idiotic comment is as stupid as your name.

[@kevinscott168]

love AG but horrified when I heard he was a religious person. just shows the most interesting people can be so stupid. very sad

[@user-fn5dq9wv3u]

lol

[@ojac9929]

what an ignorant comment, respectfully.

[@anaisnincatullus]

Speaking of stupid and sad.... the fact that you even typed that is both stupid and sad.

[@louisbifano142]

What can you possibly known about ag and his beliefs?

[@anaisnincatullus]

@@louisbifano142 I think he's refering to Guiness's autobiography which is also here on KZbin. Not sure, though.