Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
Santayana's thought underlies much of Eliot's poetry. Both Eliot and
Santayana were skeptics, and Eliot's skepticism is documented in the
quartets, a work that is a personal journal of his search for faith.
That search was to be an unsuccessful one, for Eliot realized the impossibility
of union with the Absolute. The symbolism of the rosegarden,
the bedded axle-tree, the still point, and the clematis, when
analyzed, demonstrates Eliot's concept of a clockwork universe, a universe
that is unknowing and uncaring. Eliot reaches that concept,
basically, because of Santayana's influence.
Santayana were skeptics, and Eliot's skepticism is documented in the
quartets, a work that is a personal journal of his search for faith.
That search was to be an unsuccessful one, for Eliot realized the impossibility
of union with the Absolute. The symbolism of the rosegarden,
the bedded axle-tree, the still point, and the clematis, when
analyzed, demonstrates Eliot's concept of a clockwork universe, a universe
that is unknowing and uncaring. Eliot reaches that concept,
basically, because of Santayana's influence.
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