Reading Eliot’s Four Quartets: In Search of the Time and Salvation of “Burnt Norton”

Perhaps, Eliot’s Four Quartets is the most difficult among his works. As a religious or meditative poems, it mainly shows Eliot’s thoughts on time. Eliot divides the time into 2 categories: Kronos and Kairos. But he emphasizes on Kairos more than Kronos. So he regrets that we are absorbed in Kairo, not looking at Kairos. Consequently, humans are not likely to get “Salvation.” Eliot demands that we should pay attention to Kairos, which could deviate from physical past and present time. Eliot describes it as a still point, which signifies the time (moments) we could stay away from all times. Eliot says that only God could govern all times, which is similar to the Bible. According to the Bible, God controls “what might have been,” and “what has been” as well as the past, present, and the future.