T. S. Eliot:Four Quartetsにおける永遠と瞬間の思想について

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T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets is not a religious poem in the strict sense of the word, but it refers mostly to spiritual, if not religious, and philosophical matters, such as eternity and moment, life and death or sins and salvation. Particularly, Eliot mentions most often "Time" in this poem and regards it as "eternal present". His poetic beauty is always connected with his religious feeling, so that sometimes the theological ideas are mingled with his artistic ideas. Four Quartets itself is said to be an artistic form of his theory on "Time", that is, "eternal present". But it does not follow that Eliot should be termed a propagandist of any kind, yet he is considered to be a rather religious-minded as well as modernistic artist. He earnestly hoped that we human beings could be eternally saved by something absolute, that is, God. He has discovered God at "the still point of the turning world" which stands still everlastingly and yet moves constantly. This is, as he sees it, absolute nothingness, and at the same time the ultimate source of existence. Four Quartets is not only a great master-piece of Eliot's but also one of the most distinguished "pools" in which the finest essence of European minds is introduced. We should regard it as a crystalization of the highest philosophy about "Time," namely, God.
東京家政学院大学の論文