Background
During 1939 Eliot thought that he would be unable to continue writing poetry. In an attempt to see if he could still, he started copying aspects of Burnt Norton and substituted another place: East Coker, a place that Eliot visited in 1937 with the St Michael's Church, where his ashes were later kept. The place held a particular importance to Eliot and his family because Andrew Eliott, Eliot's ancestor, left the town to travel to America in 1669. A plaque dedicated to Eliot and his ashes reads "In my beginning is my end. Of your kindness, pray for the soul of Thomas Stearns Eliot, poet. In my end is my beginning."
He managed to complete two sections by February 1940, but finished the rest during that month. John Davy Hayward, Herbert Read and others helped review and edit it. East Coker was published in the March 1940 New English Weekly for its Easter edition. It was later reprinted May and June, and it was published on its own by Faber and Faber in September. With the completion of the poem, Eliot began creating the Four Quartets as series of four poems based on the same theme with Burnt Norton as the first in the series and East Coker as the second.
Read more about this topic: East Coker (poem)
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