T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot OMwas an American-born British essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic and "one of the twentieth century's major poets". He moved to England in 1914 at age 25, settling, working and marrying there. He was eventually naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39, renouncing his American citizenship...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth26 September 1888
CountryUnited States of America
ignorance ideas silence
The endless cycle of idea and action, / Endless invention, endless experiment, / Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; / Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; / Knowledge of words, and ignorance of The Word.
ignorance order way
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not, You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy. In order to arrive at what you do not know You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance. In order to possess what you do not possess You must go by the way of dispossession. In order to arrive at what you are not You must go through the way in which you are not. And what you do not know is the only thing you know And what you own is what you do not own And where you are is where you are not.
ignorance dust ideas
The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance, All our ignorance brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to God. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.
ignorance
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance.
questions steel surgeon wounded
The wounded surgeon plies the steel / That questions the distempered part.
edge river sea within
The river is within us, the sea is all about us; The sea is the land's edge also
beyond communication dead death fire language speech
And what the dead had no speech for, when living, they can tell you, being dead: the communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
further
And we must think no further of you.
birth hour pray
Pray for us now and at the hour of our birth.
entertainment joke listen lonesome medium millions people permits radio remain
Radio is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome
bright daughter feet moon mrs porter soda wash
O the moon shone bright on Mrs Porter / And on her daughter / They wash their feet in soda water.
act falls motion reality
Between the idea / And the reality / Between the motion / And the act / Falls the Shadow.
brain brains dry thoughts
Tenants of the house, / Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season.
below saw second shape turned turning twisted
At the first turning of the second stair / I turned and saw below / The same shape twisted on the banister.