Redemption from Fire by Fire

T.S. Eliot's prolific Modernist poem The Wasteland was published in 1922. It is a poem greatly shaped by the looming darkness cast by World War I. Eliot faces down the disillusionment of redemption that was the prize sought after by those left in the war's wake. It would not be considered poor judgement or presumptuous to claim that Eliot gave off the impression of a man removed from religion and the white light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

And for many years that depiction would probably be considered accurate. But after reading "A Free Man's Worship" by Bertrand Russell---which argued for less God worship and more worship of man---a poor taste was left in Eliot's mouth. According to a biography on Eliot from a website devoted to Christian history, he joined the Church of England in 1927. Three years later he published Ash Wednesday, which for the first time showed an about face from the despair and atheist frameworks of The Wasteland. There was the same brooding tone and a bit of apprehension, but it was a step in the opposite direction; a more religious direction.

Here is an except from Eliot's 1943 Four Quartets:

The dove descending breaks the air

With flame of incandescent terror

Of which the tongues declare

The one discharge from sin and error.

The only hope, or else despair

Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre—

To be redeemed from fire by fire.

The Pentecostal allusions and sense of revelation are undeniable. It was reported by that same biography that Eliot stressed a life based on Christian principles, and not necessarily a society governed by the Church.

In connection to The Wasteland, I do not see Eliot's transition from agnosticism/atheism into Christianity, even if I read between the lines. I think The Wasteland represents a stage in the man's life similarly that it represents a stage in America's life. A gloomy stage--- a real transition period open to growth, life, despair, death. So to see Eliot's later, more Christian poetry serves merely to bookmark what was presumably a complex life of a complex person. I appreciate all of Eliot's works for the organic nature; I seek not to inject false correlations, but only to apply what I know to what I have been given.

Works Cited

Religious biography of T.S. Eliot:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/poets/tseliot.html?start=1