Cascando, by S. Beckett, and Burnt Norton, by T. S. Eliot

"Cascando," by S. Beckett (Poems 41-42), and "Burnt Norton," by T. S. Eliot (Quartets 7-13) express the poets' desire for love and union: Beckett, desiring a woman, expresses his apprehension of their love, and Eliot, wanting divine revelation, expresses his apprehension of God's love in creating the universe. Knowing the poets' personal circumstances, the artists' creative suffering can be discovered in these complex poems, as they struggle to discern the uncertain future, and to arrange to procure their desires. Beckett is "terrified again of not loving." Without love, for Eliot the "cause and end of movement," "sad time stretching before and after" is wasted. Can they obtain love? Or, is love unobtainable? Does the essence of time and mankind's free will preclude love? In answering these questions, the poems' creators' convey their philosophical beliefs about love, time, and free will, with the use of figurative language, diction, syntax, and particularly with repeated words and phrases, line and sound patterning. These poetic techniques interact with the meanings and associations of the poems' words, phrases, lines, and stanzas to contribute to our pleasure and understanding.

Optimism infuses the tone of both poems. When the poems were written (approximately1936), both poets - known to be depressed men - had reasons to be optimistic about their prospects. On the one hand, Beckett who had undergone psychoanalysis for a condition diagnosed as "narcissistic regression and depressive episodes" (Cronin 202), published the poems "Echo's Bones" (Poems 15-31), and finished the book Murphy. He met a striking American woman, Betty Stockton, for whom he wrote "Cascando" after knowing her just a few days (Cronin 234-237). Lines from...

... middle of paper ...

... Poets. London: Farber, 1957

Frankfurt, Harry G. The Importance of What We Care About. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988.

- - -. Necessity, Volition and Love. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999.

Gardner, Helen. The Composition of Four Quartets. London: Farber, 1978.

Gish, Nancy K. Time in the Poetry of T. S. Eliot. London: Macmillan, 1981.

Gross, Harvey and Robert McDowell. Sound and Form in Modern Poetry. 2nd ed. Ann Arbor: Michigan UP, 1996.

Harvey, Lawrence E. Samuel Beckett: Poet and Critic. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1970.

Hesla, David H. The Shape of Chaos: An Interpretation of the Art of Samuel Beckett. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP, 1971.

Holy Bible: King James Version. Racine, Wisconsin: Whitman.

Holy Bible: The New King James Version. New York: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Smidt, Kirstian. Poetry and Belief in the Work of T. S. Eliot. London: Routledge, 1949.