The Four Quartets- Little Gidding and Dante

So I found it especially hard to do a presentation on Little Gidding because as Dr. Sexson said, there is just so much there that it is almost hard to first nail down a singular meaning and second to try to fit everything in to a 45 minute presentation. So here are some things that i know i left out of my section and that i think deserve further exploration. I feel it is also important to point out that the section i had to present on was difficult, really difficult, so jam packed with imagery and meaning and allusion that it would seem almost impossible to fully understand and flush out. Eliot himself even remarked on this part of the poem as one of the hardest things he had ever written saying once that "This section of a poem-not the length of one canto of the Divine Comedy- cost me far more time and trouble and vexation than any passage of the same length that I have ever written."

Dante in Little Gidding Part II:
The meeting of the ghost in this part is very similar to Dante's meeting with Ser Brunetto. In book 15 of the Inferno, Dante and his guide Virgil come upon Dante's former master who was a politician and writer but is now among the sodomites. What seems important to me here is that in this meeting in the Inferno, the questions of immortality and death are brought up as Dante learns from Ser Brunetto that immortality can be found in ones literature which can last forever. This is an interesting moment in time in the poem as it is right after an air raid ( "After the dark dove with the flickering tongue/ Had passed below the horizon of his homing") and the fire that would be raining down upon Eliot in England is mirrored by the fire that is falling on the sodomites in Dante's Inferno. This image also brings to mind the fire that rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis, but that is for a different blog post all together. Upon seeing his former master Dante says "Siete voi qui, Ser Brunetto" or "Are you here, Ser Bruneto?" This is one of the lines that Eliot echoes in Little Gidding with the line " What! are you here?" Further Eliot makes use of Dante's description of Ser Brunettos in his use of the line "brown baked features" which is taken from Dante's exact same description of "lo cotto aspetto." This again happens in the lines " I fixed upon the down turned face" which comes directly from Dante's "Ficcai...la sua facia." It becomes clear that the influence of Dante in this part of the poem is overwhelming yet i still stick to my original conclusion that while Dante's work certainly played a large role in the section he also does not entirely make up the character of the ghost that Eliot encounters. Instead this "familiar compound ghost" in my understanding is, as Helen Gardener put it "both one and many" and is both "intimate and unidentifiable."

Gretta Conroy and Nora Barnacle

I just came across an interesting correlation between the character of Gretta Conroy and Joyce's wife, Nora Barnacle (shown in the picture above). Both women were from Galway, both women lived with their grandmothers, both studied in a convent, and more importantly both knew a Michael Furey character. Like Gretta, Nora knew a boy as a young girl in Galway who died from illness named Michael, only in Nora's case Michael's last name was Feeney instead of Furey. The similarities between the two women are pretty astounding! Not sure that this means anything to the text itself but I thought it was pretty neat.

Looking for Diamonds in "The Dead"

So after scouring through the "The Dead" trying to find "ooh" and "aah" moments, or as Dr.Sexson has coined them, diamonds, I have come across a few different points of interest. I am not sure these count as diamonds though so instead I will deem them to be a less precious stone like a garnet as i am still "mining" for diamonds.

First off Gabriel's name seemed like an interesting choice to me, because even with my severe lack of biblical knowledge I knew that the name had at least something to do with religion. So with a little research I came to learn that Gabriel was an archangel in the Bible who plays a few different roles. He is said to be the one to announce the end of time or the last judgement with the blowing of a horn and he is also present during both the passion and Resurrection of Jesus, it is Gabriel that announces Christ's Resurrection to the women outside his tomb, called the "Myrrh-bearing women." One of these women is Christ's mother Mary, who is often given the symbol of the lily, further, depictions of Gabriel often show him holding a lily. Interestingly enough Lily is the name of the young housekeeper in the story. I am still trying to work out what this means for the two individual characters but it does seem that in a larger sense both characters are linked to the story of the Resurrection, possibly alluding to a Resurrection or rebirth in the story (last page anyone?) but again this is all conjecture, so do with it what you may.

Dubliners: The Dead

I saw this song by Thomas Moore called "Oh, Ye Dead!" the poem is set to traditional Irish music and was published as part of Moore's "Irish Melodies" between 1808 and 1834. Apparently Joyce was often heard humming these tunes (according to the Internet, so this could be just a rumor) so it would make sense that this song was an influence of Joyce's story The Dead, it certainly seems to share many similarities.

Oh, ye Dead! oh, ye Dead! whom we know by the light you give
From your cold gleaming eyes, though you move like men who live.
Why leave you thus your graves,
In far off fields and waves,
Where the worm and the sea-bird only know your bed,
To haunt this spot where all
Those eyes that wept your fall,
And the hearts that wail'd you, like your own, lie dead?

It is true, it is true, we are shadows cold and wan;
And the fair and the brave whom we lov'd on earth are gone,
But still thus even in death
So sweet the living breath
Of the fields and the flow'rs in our youth we wander9d o9er
That ere, condemn'd, we go
To freeze mid Hecla's snow,
We would taste it awhile, and think we live once more!



I also figured I would add a photo of Dublin from about two years ago just to get us in the mood!

Attempt to define Epiphany from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

So in an attempt to keep with Professor Sexson’s suggestion that we start with the details and form a general definition from that I figured that I would begin with actual passages from the book, try and figure out what each individual passage is saying about epiphany and then try to form those ideas into a more cohesive definition. So, here it goes a list of passages and my thoughts on them hopefully followed by some sort of rough idea of what exactly an epiphany entails.


1. The first clear sign of an epiphanic moment I saw in the chapter was on page 121 when both Mole and Rat are in the boat. The line goes, “Then a change began slowly to declare itself. The horizon became clearer, field and tree came more into sight, and somehow with a different look; the mystery began to drop away from them.”

These lines suggest in such a beautiful way not a complete moment of clarity but instead a process of elucidation where surroundings are suddenly seen better

2. “O, Mole! The beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear happy call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of and the call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole row! For the music and the call must be for us.”(Page 122)

The way that Rat remarks that “the call must be for us” made me think that maybe an epiphany is not just a great illumination or understanding but maybe also an illumination of a direction or a call toward a specific course. So instead of my original view of epiphany as a moment maybe it is also a movement, a pull forward towards some sort of further revelation?

3.“Breathless and transfixed the Mole stopped rowing as the liquid run of that glad piping broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and possessed him utterly. He saw the tears on his comrade’s cheeks, and bowed his head and understood. For a space they hung there, brushed by the purple loosestrife that fringed the bank; then the clear imperious summons that marched hand-in-hand with the intoxicating melody imposed its will on Mole, and mechanically he bent to his oars again. And the light grew steadily stronger, but no birds sang as they were wont to do at the approach of dawn; and but for the heavenly music all was marvelously still.”(Page 123)

A few different parts of this passage particularly stuck out to me and added to my own definition of epiphany. In specific the description of an epiphany as something forceful and invasive and almost controlling with phrases such as “possessed him utterly” and “imposed its will” were new to my original idea of epiphany. This passage changed an epiphany to me from just an experience of incredible awe and clarity to a moment and feeling so overwhelmingly engulfing that one has no choice but to become completely absorbed by it, whether they want to or not.

So from the chapter as a whole and from looking at some specific passages I have come to view an epiphany as not only a feeling but also a force. Something so powerful it cannot be ignored (and should not be ignored) as it seemingly completely overtakes the person (or rat or mole) who is experiencing it. A point in time where “the mystery begins to drop away” and a moment of such complete illumination and clarity occurs that the way towards what you seek is undeniable. It would also seem that this specific sensation is full of feeling “wonderfully as peace and happy” while still remaining powerless against its greatness. I have a feeling that as this class goes on this very rough, working definition will grow from a few lines to a few paragraphs that will hopefully become a bit clearer than this. Overall from what I can tell and epiphany is something so contained within one’s own mind and experience that it is simply indescribable.

Epiphanies as an English Major

Before I begin my search for former epiphanies in my life as an English major I must first take exception to something Professor Sexon said in our last class. While I understand his thought between the distinction of "oh" or small epiphanies and "aah" or large epiphanies I have to argue with him in the matter of epiphanies found in good meals. As a strong follower of the James Beard lifestyle I have to admit that my only "aah" epiphany moments have been brought on by good meals, specifically the oxtail at cul-de-sac in Rome incident of 2008. If music can be a medium for an epiphany than experiencing the absolute genius of Thomas Keller certainly has to be an "aah" moment of perfect clarity and awakening. With that said I will now try to explore how literature has been a close second to food in my experience with epiphanies.

I suppose my first English "oh" epiphany came in high school when I first read William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. It was then that I realized that pieces of literature could be so much more than just a story, that they could be instead an intricate puzzle of meaning and allusions that the reader put together as they read. It was because of this that I chose English as my major, who wouldn't want to read great books all day, putting together each puzzle all while receiving college credit! In English 429, Professional Writing with Professor Downs last year I experienced another small epiphany when it finally hit me that literature majors have a very small range of job options after graduation and that the future was real and not like the fiction i had spent the last years immersed in. I assume for every novel i have read, there has been a small lightbulb moment where i finally understand a reference or allusion or put everything together, i am assuming however that there are too many of these to recall. This May I hope to revisit this post and write something more conclusive, a final epiphany about how i have spent my college life