T S Eliot reading his 'Four Quartets' (1947)

Recorded by Eliot for HMV, these 78 rpm discs were released in September 1947.
While working on his play Murder in the Cathedral, Eliot came up with the idea for a poem that was structured similarly to The Waste Land. The resulting poem, Burnt Norton, named after a manor house, was published in Eliot's 1936 edition of Collected Poems 1909-1935. Eliot decided to create another poem similar to Burnt Norton but with a different location in mind. This second poem, East Coker, was finished and published by Easter 1940. (Eliot visited East Coker in 1937 and his ashes now repose there at St. Michael's Church.)
As Eliot was finishing his second poem, World War II began to disrupt his life and he spent more time lecturing across Great Britain and helping out during the war when he could. It was during this time that Eliot began working on The Dry Salvages, the third poem, which was put together near the end of 1940. This poem was published in February 1941 and Eliot immediately began to plot out his fourth poem, Little Gidding. Eliot's health declined and he stayed in Shamley Green to recuperate. His illness and the war disrupted his ability to write and he became dissatisfied with each draft. He believed that the problem with the poem was with himself and that he had started the poem too soon and written it too quickly. By September 1941, he stopped writing and focused on his lecturing. It was not until September 1942 that Eliot finished the last poem and it was finally published.
While writing East Coker Eliot thought of creating a "quartet" of poems that would reflect the idea of the four elements and, loosely, the four seasons. As the first four parts of The Waste Land have each been associated with one of the four classical elements so has each of the constituent poems of Four Quartets: air (BN,) earth (EC,) water (DS,) and fire (LG.) However, there is little support for the poems matching with individual seasons. Eliot described what he meant by "quartet" in a 3 September 1942 letter to John Hayward:
... these poems are all in a particular set form which I have elaborated, and the word "quartet" does seem to me to start people on the right track for understanding them ("sonata" in any case is too musical). It suggests to me the notion of making a poem by weaving in together three or four superficially unrelated themes: the "poem" being the degree of success in making a new whole out of them.
The four poems comprising Four Quartets were first published together as a collection in New York in 1943 and then London in 1944.

[@henrypapale1242]

It (the Four Quartets) is one of the greatest treasures of our language. I have read and re-read it countless times since I first "discovered" it in 1954. It never ceases to amaze me, it is so carefully written, not a single superfluous word.

[@purchasingofficerwkpp685]

I came here because of Poetry Unforgotten. When I listened to No. 1 and No. 2 I fell in love with TS Eliot poems. I might not have if I had heard his reading of it first 😳. I find that so interesting.

[@thedativecase9733]

When kids complain about being forced to study "boring old stuff" at school -I always think of how I had to study the Four Quartets for A level Eng Lit. I would never have read these poems if I hadn't had to write essays about them, however I grew to love them and they have remained precious to me. I still remember that one lesson on a dark winter's afternoon, while we were reading and discussing Little Gidding and the whole thing began to make sense to me.And I still prefer Eliot's own recitation of his poetry.

[@TheSteveBerlin]

These are some of most exquisite poems in the English language, but are they ever complex, philosophically and imagery-wise. Yet they are musical, and need to be heard as well as read, and re-read. And Eliot reading his own work, with his strange, affected accent, well, this is one for a Homo sapiens time capsule. Thank you for posting this.

[@penelopegreene]

Klklnkbkkh ok llbjlnlnlkkllolb hi i9ububu

[@mesidonaa]

Thank you for this.

[@saltburner2]

Thank you!

[@thecommonword6996]

The summit of poetry

[@dermotcudmore5855]

Thank your for uploading

[@SanctuaryGoodLife]

Oh my goodness, thank you

[@islandbuoy4]

read portions of this at my mother's funeral ... ending with the ending of course ... "When the tongues of flame are in-folded...Into the crowned knot of fire...And the fire and the rose are one."

[@stephenlee1756]

I read the last section of Little Gidding at my father's Memorial service. He was a Stained Glass artist and was inspired by "the dove descending" in many of his windows. He also used glass in the same way that Eliot describes his use of words. Eliot and Bach were his guiding artistic influences - subtlety and texture!

[@margaretthomas2415]

The Ouija board of KZbin has brought me many delights!

[@islandbuoy4]

Ouija board or roulette wheel of fortunes?

[@tomfreemanorourke1519]

Do I hear thunder and lightning in the background, or is it workmen in some other part of the building from where the recording is taking place? It must be the power of high definition stereo and pre stereo recordings (recorded in black and white) re-recorded. I am 67 years old now and even though my hearing is bad and the head noises that have become my companion since September 2011 that affect everyday things once taken for granted, with the Bluetooth headphones I can detect them, amazing, why not use Bluetooth in the construction of new hearing aids, and use it in business premises to aid customers, employees and employer to aid better communication?. Just a thought...Love always

[@richardkim5822]

& of the LONDONER, ENGLAND & AMERIKKAS---

[@edwardj3070]

is this work considered heretical by the Anglican and Catholic church?

[@richardkim5822]

😂whether the indic sutra of a veiled Christian ethos of experience, suffering & liberation towards a fulfillment in UNKNOWN chairs in tempore...a mystery of language of hope, & the visitation Of fiery ministry of the gentilesse overseeing of Angels....O T.S. ELIOT, a unclaimed bodhisattva of Our unraveling times...