Pre vs. Post Conversion Eliot

Schuler opined that The Four Quartets is Eliot's greatest post-conversion poem.  In comparing it to the Wasteland (which he wrote before his conversion, and is arguable his best pre-conversion poem), I found commonality in the discussion of cleansing.  In Wasteland, it is death, or purging, by water.  In 4Q, he considers fire along with water as a something that cleanses.  The poem considers many paradoxes, but this one (along with the beginning/end) may be most profound because of its religious implications.  I best understand "water and fire" as something that purges or wears away any lasting impurities from whatever was before unburned/uncleaned, to show it true essence (not to being Heidegger in): "of all that you have done, and been; the shame of motives late revealed..."  The result is realization or self understanding, which is salvation.

AG's