Little Gidding was started after The Dry Salvages but was delayed because of Eliot's declining health and his dissatisfaction with early drafts of the poem. Eliot was unable to finish the poem until September 1942. Like the three previous poems of the Four Quartets, the central theme is time and humanity's place within it. Each generation is seemingly united and the poem describes a unification within Western civilization. When discussing World War II, the poem states that humanity is given a choice between the bombing of London or the Holy Spirit. God's love allows mankind to redeem themselves and escape the living hell through purgation by fire. The end of the poem describes how Eliot has attempted to help the world as a poet, and he parallels his work in language with working on the soul or working on society.
Read more about this topic: Four Quartets, Poems
Famous quotes containing the word gidding:
“I’ve always been more afraid of being left alone or left out than of things that go bump in the night.”
—Nelson Gidding (b. 1919)