Observations placeholder
Eliot, T S - Four Quartets - 11 The Dry Salvages V
Identifier
013548
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
T S Eliot – The Dry Salvages
To communicate with Mars, converse with spirits
To report the behaviour of the sea monster
Describe the horoscope, haruspicate or scry
Observe disease in signatures, evoke
Biography from the wrinkles of the palm
And tragedy from fingers, release omens
By sortilege, or tea leaves, riddle the inevitable
With playing cards, fiddle with pentagrams
Or barbituric acids, or dissect
The recurrent image into pre-conscious terrors –
To explore the womb, or tomb, or dreams, all these are usual
Pastimes and drugs; and features of the press
And always will be, some of them especially
When there is distress of nations and perplexity