Little Gidding
T. S. Eliot (Author), Faber and Faber (Publisher)
"The legacy of the Anglican community at Little Gidding inspired American-English poet, T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) in his poem entitled Little Gidding, the final of four long poems that comprise the collection Four Quartets (1945). Eliot, a convert to Anglicanism who identified as an Anglo-Catholic and was a life member of the Society of King Charles the Martyr,[27][28] visited Little Gidding church on 25 May 1936. This was six years before he published his poem.[29] Eliot, a noted critic, supposedly had been asked to read a play regarding Charles I visiting the community.[30]In the poem named after this site, Eliot combined the image of fire and Pentecostal fire to emphasise the need for purification and purgation, saying humanity's flawed understanding of life and turning away from God leads to a cycle of warfare. Eliot intends to portray this suffering as restorative -- that it was necessary to experience catastrophic pain before life can be renewed and begin anew. Humanity's errors in thought that led to this suffering can be overcome by recognizing the lessons of the past and focusing on the unity of past, present, and future -- a unity that Eliot asserts is necessary for salvation.[31] Eliot draws imagery from the history of the Little Gidding community and its role in the Civil War and the fall of Charles I (whom Eliot calls the "broken King"), relating this past to a present in which Britain was struggling with the devastation of The Blitz during World War II."-- Wikipedia
Print Book, English, 1942
Faber and Faber, 24 Russell Square, London, 1942