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Eliot, T S - Four Quartets - 08 The Dry Salvages I
Identifier
002668
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
T S Eliot – The Dry Salvages
I do not know much about gods; but I think the river
is a strong brown god – sullen, untamed and intractable,
Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier
Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce,
Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges.
The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten
By the dwellers in cities – ever, however, implacable,
Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder
Of what men choose to forget. Unhonoured, unpropitiated
By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting.
His rhythm was present in the nursery bedroom
In the rank ailanthus of the April dooryard
In the smell of grapes on the autumn table,
And the evening circle in the winter gaslight.
The source of the experience
Eliot, T SConcepts, symbols and science items
Symbols
NymphScience Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Overloads
AngstExtreme unhappiness
Overwhelming fear and terror
War.