Four Quartets - Poems

Poems

Each poem has five sections. The later poems connect to the earlier sections with Little Gidding synthesizing the themes of the earlier poems within its sections. Within Eliot's own poetry, the five sections connect to The Waste Land. This allowed Eliot to structure his larger poems, which he had difficulty with.

According to C.K. Stead, the structure is based on:

1. The movement of time, in which brief moments of eternity are caught.
2. Worldly experience, leading on to dissatisfaction.
3. Purgation in the world, divesting the soul of the love of created things.
4. A lyric prayer for, or affirmation of the need of, Intercession.
5. The problems of attaining artistic wholeness which becomes analogue for, and merge into, the problems of achieving spiritual health.

These points can be applied to the structure of The Waste Land, though there is not necessarily a fulfillment of these but merely a longing or discussion of them.