Eliot's Quartets

While reading the last two quartets running on three hours of sleep, I am not sure it quite makes sense. In “The Dry Salvages”, I can see more of how nature is abandoned and ignored. One can see this at the very beginning when he speaks of the river and how now “Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges”. We try to push the natural world away, but it is always with us. He later uses imagery of the sea I think to show struggle/suffering. Where is the end to it all? Our futures have “no destination” apparently.

            In “Little Gidding”, I found the second section to be interesting. He says, “dead water and dead sand/ contending for the upper hand./ The parched eviscerate soil/ Gapes at the vanity of toil/ laughs without mirth/ this is the death of earth”. This reminded me of the Wasteland with all the negative imagery. Eliot is talking about something deeper though, and I think he is referring to the meaning to life. The “vanity of toil” sticks out because everything one tries to do is pointless. 

I commented on Frankie's post.