Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Unfamiliar Name


Four Quartets: Little Gidding, IV
T. S. Eliot

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 of pyre—
     To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
     We only live, only suspire
     Consumed by either fire or fire.

2 comments:

Molly Sabourin said...

That icon is perfect for that poem. "To be redeemed from fire by fire" - ooh, that gives me chills.

Kris Livovich said...

A shirt of flame does describe Love. Beautiful poem.