A Reader's Guide to T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets"

Thomas Howard, Professor Emeritus, St. John's Seminary, and author, "Dove Descending: A Journey into T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets" - Gordon College Symposium Key Note Address - Thursday April 18, 2013

[@peterspellman9377]

Thomas Howard was the reason I attended Gordon College (1978-81). His classes were relentlessly inspiring and his child-like wonder unlocked for me the 'splendor in the ordinary' he always pointed to . Rest in the love of your Lord, dear Thomas, and enjoy 'the Dance'.

[@dbob3405]

KZbin has a lot of meaningless junk but to be treated to this wonderful lecture by a gifted Eliot scholar on a work of art I have loved and wrestled with my entire adult life makes wading through KZbin’s junk more than worthwhile. My appreciation and understanding of this as well as Eliot’s other work has only deepened and my life is more enriched-thanks you Professor Howard. I hope you and Eliot are in that infinite center enjoying each other’s company

[@rokasbucelis5899]

This man looks just like Eliot lol

[@zetetick395]

I was just thinking the same. :)

[@SP-qi8ur]

Precisely my first thought lmao

[@thetoynbeeconvector]

Thought the same.

[@jonathancampbell6003]

@@thetoynbeeconvector I

[@rogerpowe1748]

he obviously models himself on his hero!

[@danielescada6785]

Wow, that was incredible. I wish I had seen this years ago, when I first read Eliot. I ended up learning much of what Professor Howard explains, but with great difficulty. He summarizes everything so well. Brilliant lecture!

[@SP-qi8ur]

De dónde eres bro

[@julieferrone1311]

me too it is a new vision of the quartets

[@botanmahdy6592]

Thanks for sharing this . We need it as students in all the levels.

[@user-pg5uw6kq9w]

Excellent talk! I learned a lot.

[@malvinderkaur4187]

Poetry is song from heart and mind... it just pops up, not labored too much thinking of what to formulate how to formulate, if it is labored then it loses its charm and spontaneity of that very thought.

[@homeandfamilyservices2650]

Does make you wonder why anyone with any maturity, self security and self confidence would wish to look like someone else. Has he also written a poem called the "2 x 2 Quartets" like his idol(-try)..😁😁

[@johntobey1558]

Lewis was a Christian. JRR Tolkien and Elliot were Roman Catholic.

[@Borzoi86]

Both C. S. Lewis and T. S. Eliot were confirmed Anglicans. JRR Tolkien was RC.

[@falldog9]

R.I.P. Professor Thomas Howard. 1935 - 2020. This lecture is even more poignant now.

[@soniajacks3104]

What a privilege to be able to hear Professor Howard in this way. I have read and re-read the Four Quartets for the last 50 years, having written a dissertation on Eliot in my 20s and each time I read it I understand a little more, but Prof Howard has provided me with new insights and done it in an amusing way. One could not ask for more. Many thanks

[@bramblebop1904]

With poetry like that, I'm never sure if I _understand_ more each time, or _read into it_ more --- according to my growing life experience.

[@hamstergirl-ii7su]

hi- can I read your dissertation? i'm doing a project on eliot and I dont have enough time to fixate on any of his works specifically!

[@Borzoi86]

Discovered and read his Dove Descending just this last year. Yikes! The scales fell from my eyes and I now adore the Four Quartets. This is a special video!

[@Stoneshakre]

I came looking for Alec Guinness reading 'The Four Quartets' but, distracted, I thought I'd give Thomas Howard's lecture a go. Very happy I did. I really envy those students who have Professor Emeritus Howard as a teacher. Funny and profound, he managed in less than an hour to send on its way a deal of my bewilderment about the poem, and also to question where I stand, strap-hanging among the crowds on my tube-train, immersed in my own twittering. Thank for, Professor, and Gordon College, for a video that reached The Wirral in perfect condition..

[@TomRobinsonMusic]

***** I've just uploaded the Alec Guinness recording to my KZbin channel Michael, and added a link in the "Show More" section where you can download it free from Soundcloud.

[@paulfreeman4900]

Bewilderment is good. A reflection of the times it was written in. I would rather hold onto this essence rather than have anyone try to explain such elusive beauty.

[@warrenstutely3320]

just come across the four quartets lecture by Thomas Howard, a true critic who doesn't hide behind the jargon of post modernism, so refreshing, many thanks

[@chrismca]

Well said.

[@anitaturcotte5880]

I just listened to Alec Guinness reading Four Quartets and then found this wonderful professor’s lecture. A pleasure to have the poem explained with intelligence and humour. Thank you Professor Howard.

[@cufflink44]

Guinness does a fine job, but may I suggest you listen to Eliot himself, which is available on YT. Eliot's own reading is definitive, the one against which all others are measured.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Alec Guiness is insufferable . Excruciatingly mannered .

[@Charles-y4r]

Hey you folks, read Whitman's "Song of Myself" for another perspective. Another great poem. Despite its name Whitman's poem has little on him, and unlike Eliot it is optimistic and full of love. It will make you happy. Though Eliot was born in St Louis USA he seems to have transformed into nearly full English Anglican.

[@atlantic1554]

Thank you so much for posting! Listening to Professor Howard on T. S. Eliot's "Four Quartets," my mind explodes every few moments.

[@bramblebop1904]

Hanging antecedent, mistah.

[@evanleesmith385]

Grateful for this recording. Tom Howard is a mentor of mine via his writings. It's a gift to hear his voice in this lecture.

[@davidbetterton1]

Burnt Norton is in Gloucestershire, not Huntingdonshire. Little Gidding is the place in Huntingdonshire. But what a fun and interesting approach to these great poems

[@sanchari.c]

What a privilege to see this, unrestricted by time or space. To sit in that class and hear him speak would have been amazing.

[@paulfreeman4900]

The work of Eliot transcends analysis. Compare this to Beethoven's late Quartets and Piano Sonatas.Sublime!

[@benzandpour]

Just saw Ralph Fiennes perform this in London. This video sure did help! (Dec 2021)

[@readingrebellion9758]

"At the still point. Of the turning world, neither from, nor towards: There the dance is!"... T.S Eliot could have been a Buddhist.

[@garypuckettmuse]

my understanding is that he took a big interest in what we call "hinduism" and I'm not sure if I heard this or it sprung from my own mind but I feel very sure this is a reference to the god Nataraja who is the dancing incarnation of Shiva. You can find all about Nataraja easily but his dance exists at the very instant of creation and destruction which occurs with every beat of his hand held drum, and he dances wildly but there is the still point of the dance, like the eye of the storm. I could go on but I won't bore you. Nataraja is my personal sacred hindu god figure. in the one image all of life is represented all of time, and all that is out of time. The still point is out of time and space. Go look, if you care to!

[@afatalstillness]

The still point of the turning world is also nearly a direct reference to Dante's Divine Comedy.

[@bun197]

He didnt like the idea of giving up the self I dont think

[@Borzoi86]

But, thankfully, God had other ideas for Mr. Eliot; Eliot became a believing and practicing Anglican.

[@kimberleychitando6641]

Professor Howard really makes the FQ fun! He must be an incredibly good teacher!

[@toffa1000]

excellent talk, excellent book

[@markgranier]

Fascinating. BUT, the language is Four Quartets is NOT "flat" or "prosaic"! It is full of rhythmic, sinewy music.

[@quagapp]

I heard someone who had worked in a record shop circa the time of the composition of Four Quartets. He worked in record shop at the time and Eliot came in wanting a copy of Bartok's Four Quartets. Whether this is significant I don't know. I also started watching this a bit dubiously (indeed from the small image he looks like Eliot). I have always actually just read the 4 Quartets since 1968. I can't recall studying them as such ( did put quite a bit or reading into The Waste Land). A friend and I argue that (as he thinks) all the other famous works by Eliot are great, not so Four Quartets. But I have always liked both. I think Eliot moved to these works which are, indeed, subtle, and even comparative to some great music communicating 'before it is understood'.

[@janewrin1830]

What a wonderful lecture. He was clearly a very knowledgeable and humble man.

[@SilhSe]

Oh God , Prof. Howard is (was) brilliant 🥺 He's alive in our hearts and minds 🤍🕊

[@Borzoi86]

Buy a copy of Prof. Howard's wonderful book, "Dove Descending: A Journey into the Four Quartets." He was also a gifted writer.

[@ranulphdiggins4310]

What a wonderful talk. Told me things I didn't know and got me to revisit parts of the poem I thought I already did. Two really minor points. First, East Coker is in Somerset near the border of Dorset. Close to where I grew up. Second at 30:20 TS Eliot is paraphrasing Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth not Ecclesiasticus.

[@johnmartin2813]

At 28': these are not tube stations these are hills. Primrose Hill has never been a tube station. It used to be an overground station.

[@tonywolfemusic5920]

In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...and the Word (Logos) became flesh and dwelt among us.

[@martinhasson4942]

THIS " LECTURE" IS AS SHARP AS A TWO-EDGED SWORD. MY OWN LITTLE GUESSING ABOUT THIS WORK OF ELIOT'S WAS I MAY SAY ENJOYABLE BUT THIS MANS INTERPRETATION MOVED ME TO TEARS!

[@Charles-y4r]

Great poem, no doubt, and interesting that this Christian poem (so called) does not mention Christ or consider the story of the 4 gospels. It's an intellectual Christianity that owes more to Acquinus' Summa Theologica, his distrust of the flesh and physical love like Augustine.

[@careyrowland]

Boylston Street, indeed! I have visited that site many times, wondering about these mysteries, in a world from whence we come and go, knowing only what we do not know.

[@radstar3]

"Although logos is common to all, most people live as if they had a wisdom of their own." "The way upward and the way downward are the same." Heraclitus

[@Eris123451]

I first read 4Q aged about 16 and have read and reread them with love, awe and delight still undiminished now suddenly I'm 60 and although not a Christian they still speak to me with an elegance, precision and a clarity that is unmatched, but I find that I'm somehow glad that I've waited until now to have them explained to me. In fact these poems stand perfectly well on their own almost without the need for comment or analysis, but he still makes some interesting and useful points not all of which I agree with him about, but it probably doesn't matter.

[@kieranjohnston7550]

Eris, thank you for your comments which really hit home. Especially “these poems stand perfectly on their own without comment.” While commentary can help, it is better if you enter the poems and work out your own understanding, over a long period of contemplation, as you have done. One of the greatest life-lines in poetry is from Frost’s poem “Mending Wall:” “I would rather he said it for himself.”

[@peterspaulding5584]

This guy is charming as hell. Wish more scholars could lecture like this.

[@Simpaulme]

Around 11 minutes in: Why Four Quartets? Doesn't Eliot say somewhere that the different 'voices' are analogous to the different instruments in a musical ensemble. At any rate, he wrote to Stephen Spender how he could wish to emulate the sublimity of Beethoven late quartets (specifically the A minor).

[@fioweaver]

What a breath of fresh air! All gadgets are designed to make us lazy spectators. Good poetry combines aesthetic appreciation and rigorous mental exercise.

[@ChurlsBeardSmug]

Dr. Tom Howard is clearly emulating T.S. Eliot's manner of dress and style! Spitting image?

[@TheWhitehiker]

The prof is tedious, but i love Eliot. Speed to 1.25 for your comfort.

[@nickowchar2001]

I agree with the rest on this thread. A very fine lecture. I wish it went longer.

[@ortchaaal]

Not bad but dressing up like Eliot is weird

[@sumandixit7518]

It’s not wierd if you are a fan

[@SSNewberry]

"Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future," It summarizes itself. The speaker dwells on distraction by distraction.

[@m.h.3082]

Wow. I met Tom at the C. S. Lewis institute in Seattle in 1998 and we corresponded for several years. On March 27, 2013, Spy Wednesday, I had most of my aorta replaced in Charleston and was still in CVICU. Shortly before my surgery, I recorded myself reading the "Wounded Surgeon Plies the Steel" section.

[@dwanderful1]

Mr Howard is awesome and funny as well

[@gayleyee5723]

This was wonderful, RIP Dr. Howard, you are a gem. I am hoping that he has left many generations of English scholars of TS Eliot in his wake.

[@LawrenceCarroll1234]

One of the incidents of Eliot's life that I found hilarious - I believe this was recounted in Robert Speight's biography of Eliot (but I'm not sure) - was when he was asked by a student (an American I think) - what he meant in "Ash Wednesday" by the sentence, "Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper tree." According to Speight (?), Eliot responded, "What I meant by that was 'Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper tree." hahahahaha! I laughed and laughed. :-D Great lecture here!

[@dgbx6]

Wonderful approach and insights to this marvellous work. Thank you, I found this very helpful.

[@jmichaelortiz]

He has entered TSE's zone of insight @ 49:00; marvelous!

[@jmichaelortiz]

Lewis was not an Orthodox Christian. He was a Protestant.

[@baldrbraa]

«Anglo»-catholics are not Catholics.

[@GregoryBoyd-s1n]

Lewis Frank Jones Carol Jones Helen

[@davidreid8075]

By- pass is a road which skirts a town or city..

[@johntobey1558]

He looks so much like T.S.Elliot that I thought he was LARPing. Honest to God, this man is a true Scholar in his own right. A Clyde Kilby to his Elliot for those of you whom have toured the Wade Center at my Alma mater Wheaton College Wheaton, Illinois.

[@iamthelobo]

T.S. Eliot... man... that guy was a poet.

[@julieferrone1311]

What a wonderful presentation. Eliot is not moralizing but says to us humans, we will suffer, we will feel the torment. We are either going to die in the fire of love or the fire of some hell. Despite the misgivings of our human condition - all shall be well and all manner shall be well. However, as Prof Howard states, it's the the casual "It'll be ok,"we have Adam's curse upon us, we will die..... a deeper communion, dying to our old selves, only through time is time redeemed .... and time is full of paradoxes, the structure of salvation or damnation. In the end, the rose and the fire are one. Now. Always. The "still point," so it is not so much a conclusion but a return, a new arrival, seeing the place for the first time.

[@ivoryn]

It's not your headphones.

[@andreafisherwriter]

Savoring each and every word 🙏

[@johnnywilley8522]

Great lecture! Thank you !

[@yebyo]

Thank you Professor, then all shall be well .

[@jmichaelortiz]

Sorry, but the "wounded surgeon" (35:28) is most definitely a priest probing spiritual wounds.

[@davidhockley1082]

This speaker is as a breath of fresh air. So many ( too many) people fail completely to understand anything at all about T.S. Eliot.

[@Ramblinrollerblindru]

I love this guy's folksy fireside chat delivery but he needs to let some facts get in the way of the story. Burnt Norton is in Gloucestershire, not Huntingdonshire. There is a house there, but the original Burnt Norton was ruined by fire in the 17thc. The present house was unoccupied when TSE and Emily Hale trespassed in the garden in 1934. East Coker is in Somerset. It is Little Gidding which is in Huntingdonshire. I consider the elemental attribution to be Burnt Norton = air, East Coker = earth, Dry Salvages = water, Little Gidding = fire. A hatchment has a specifiv heraldic meaning and is invariably lozenge shaped (ie. a diamond and carries the arms of the deceased. Eliot was not armigerous therefore could not have a hatchment.. the plaque in East Coker church starts "Of your charity..." and not "of your courtesy..."

[@tonywolfemusic5920]

Also, I believe the dying nurse is referring to a hospice type caregiver, meaning if we obey the hospice worker and give into the disease getting worse, and become aware of Adam’s curse, then we shall be healed. It is unabashed kenosis that this man is writing about.

[@sabymoon]

I love Four Quartets, whenever I’m in a dark night of the soul I open the poem.

[@bryanupfield6934]

Just totally fascinating and enlightening.

[@quagapp]

Eliot was thick-mired in religion. But 'twittering world' I suspect knowing Keats's 'Ode to Autumn'. The irony might also be directed to the final line: 'And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.' Everyone saw the reference to twittering on the internet. But I didn't I don't use twitter and I was thinking of a world where people twittered or things twittered....

[@brentcarson9634]

Great lecture on what I regard as the world's greatest poem. See also Harry Blamires's book, the Word Unheard.

[@c.s.hayden3022]

“Four Quartets, maybe some of you have ventured to get your toe into the water...” That really signals the level we’re at here. 😐

[@gufarmall856]

God bless you dear sir

[@DSmith-iw7fs]

Great Lecture. True professor of the dance. Thank you, Mr. Howard.

[@kevingrozav2089]

This is a great lecture. I’m so excited to be a Christian honestly. Time is redeemable and I get to partake in the culmination of time and history in blessing! Revelation 1:8.

[@SP-qi8ur]

You think this is the end of history?

[@tonywolfemusic5920]

@@SP-qi8ur no one knows the time. Yet, all will know when it is time.

[@tonywolfemusic5920]

@@SP-qi8ur whether dead or alive, we will partake in the culmination of the age, we who are to be made like Him...

[@2003ziv]

This is a great lecture. thank you!

[@John-vx9qy]

Hes an excellent teacher. I watched a course on Eliot from Yale. That was boring but Professor is excellent .. Four Quartets is my favorite Eliot poem

[@siddinenibhavanarayana2671]

Thomas Howard, Professor Emeritus, St. John's Seminary, and author, "Dove Descending: A Journey into T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets".... The Marvel of application of technology to communication resulting in this wonder of conveyance of auditory and visual data. when we were studying Eliot in 1979, How better we would have been exposed to the different shades of interpretation. How earlier we had been under the cloud of thi mellow shadow of this aesthetic experience!

[@christopherw3490]

Dude, find help quick!!

[@johnbradshaw5097]

A Scapeshifter

[@frgraybean]

Thank you for posting this. What a treasure this man is! May he rest in peace!

[@GodsGadfly]

What a delightful find!

[@gracedirocco8049]

Most illuminating.

[@tolvaer]

I think J Alfred Prufrock was the patient in the Screwtape Letters

[@jamesbunch8932]

2 violins, viola, cello

[@jarrodlacy9856]

I liked the mention of Falstaff as he dies, along with Mistress Quickly, two players from Shakespeare's "Henry V," in comparison and similarity to how Eliot relates and describes death. Fantastic post.

[@idecantwellbarnes6707]

Greetings All! Will some kind scholarly person respond to Mr. Jarrod Lacy’s Falstaffian observation. Thank you.

[@Szederp]

Thank you very much for the upload. Great starting points.

[@theculturedbumpkin]

This was outstanding ❤️🙏

[@kinawinkelstrahle2431]

Fantastic! Thank you so much! 😀💕👏👏

[@baganscissors7224]

solid

[@taylordiclemente5651]

By the way, the wounded surgeon is Chiron.

[@safiyaahmed5648]

So can someone confirm this please? He mentions a cathedral at 02:07. Is this Chartres Cathedral? Am I right?

[@bramblebop1904]

That's what he said.

[@garypuckettmuse]

What? He explains "unredeemable" as "nothing you can do about it"? when speaking of time. Ouch. "Redeem" is a very loaded word which ranges from the transactional to the transcendent and back and if anything we are speaking about the significance of the present and that only the present really exists and that all of the past and future live in the present . . .I won't go into the spiritual "redemption" -- and beautiful stuff, deep stuff. And the man who wrote the book about the poem says "Nothing you can do about it."? Academia is really best left for certain types. A poet, an artist, a naturalist, a spiritualist, a mother, a sailor . . .just about everyone understands things better than academics. They are so insular and self-satisfied and they go around entertaining each other, dining on that one mediocre idea they wrote their thesis on, Stifling. Stagnant. And ts eliot would certainly roll his eyes listening to this most obvious overlay of his anglican faith which I think is completely wrong. If anything there is a lot of Hinduism here. The "Still point" is the heart of Shiva's dance in his Nataraja form. The very point at which all is destroyed and recreated simultaneously. Nevermind . . . . .I'll just say I wouldn't stop with this guy if you love Four Quartets -- he didn't even get the play of the title -- which is four fours. Onward.

[@index3876]

You're highly confused

[@garypuckettmuse]

@@index3876 no. i know a lot about this poem. i am not confused. this guy is lost.

[@abdulwahid-nv1kh]

Have celebrations of these value systems helped creating a real humble human being?

[@kieranjohnston7550]

That’s a very good question, Abdulwahid. I think that these value systems can be used as a vehicle for those who are humble enough to be disposed towards humility. The vehicle is irrelevant, the humility and openness is everything.

[@paulmitchell9423]

Prof Howard is a complete teacher: how ironic that he was bound by time. Even so, I learned a very great deal about Eliot's poem and I can't help wondering how much more he had to offer.

[@tonywolfemusic5920]

@Jim Newcombe even children yet born are bound by time. Also, professor Howard was bound and is not bound by time.

[@tonywolfemusic5920]

@Jim Newcombe i think the disconnect comes from not understanding or ceding to the Almighty the fact that understanding of time for us-those stuck on earth for the “time” being-is bound by our understanding of time beginning and time ending. Or time proceeding. But what has been will be. And what will be has been. There is nothing new, and God is in control of it all. Christ was crucified some 2,000 years ago, and he was crucified for eternity past and future. That’s why in Revelation, the apostle John said he saw what appeared to be a Lamb as if slain (the Bible also says that before the foundation of the world the lamb was slain) We don’t get it, and can’t get it while we are still cloaked in mortality, but the more we stop focusing on our mortality, and begin focusing on our immortality, the more the Lord reveals to us, and gives us a better understanding as we move towards our heavenly home. I hope this helps. Be blessed, friend.

[@tonywolfemusic5920]

@Jim Newcombe also, no, I meant yet born. Yet in this sense being used as an adverb to modify the word born, and referring to the definition of yet meaning “in the time still remaining,” or “before all is done/finished”. I wrote what I intended to write.

[@abooswalehmosafeer173]

Thank you.i enjoyed that.

[@frankmyers_whereisthesound4739]

9m

[@tmac8892]

This is how I picture prufrock.

[@Simpaulme]

'we human beings, we men, are hag-ridden ..' Did he really say that!

[@robertdude4725]

You do know that "hag-ridden" meant tormented by nightmares anxieties? It's only tenuously linked to witches etymologically.

[@tomislavkuna2265]

Nice one! Enjoyed the reading.

[@christopherbrookfield4785]

Dickie-bow doodle dandie.

[@spellboundtarot1264]

Thank you Sir. 🖤

[@derrylbrooks9075]

Talk about twin lectures

[@anm2945]

Thank You 4 This Lesson 😶