Burnt norton poem by t.s elliot

Burnt Norton . How is time invoked or described at various points in the poem ? Is there an interesting progression or change in these references ? What lines strike you as especially odd or mysterious ? What is their effect ? Singly or together

Indeed , the word time ' appears over and over again in Burnt Norton But the speaker has diverging s of time in the poem . At the beginning of the first stanza , for example , he or she invoked time as an adversary

All time is unredeemable

What might have been is an

abstraction

Remaining a perpetual possibility

Only in a world of speculation

What might have been and what has been

Point to one end , which is always present (n . pag

But towards the last stanza of section V , the speaker finally realized the futility of trying to make time stop in to maintain a cherished status quo

Desire itself is movement

Not in itself desirable

Love is itself unmoving

Only the cause and end of movement

Ridiculous the waste sad time

Stretching before and after (n . pag

The above-mentioned insight stemmed from the fact that ideals such as love and desire were attained mainly because there were individuals who willingly abandoned convention in to pursue them . I myself initially found these lines to be odd - the speaker suddenly changed his or her views on love and desire after agonizing about their inevitable loss for the most part of the poem . But these lines also had a single effect on me - they enlightened me on the real nature of love and happiness , as well as how they are truly attained

Read the first ten lines of section V , and consider them as possible commentary on poetry - and on this poem in particular . What is suggested here about the importance of Words , after...