MR. ELIOT once said--I do not know how seriously--that
he would prefer an illiterate audience; and an illiterate
audience might at least possess the honesty and humility which
are sometimes lacking among his literate critics. Poetry can
be enjoyed but not criticized before it is understood; and a
pretence of understanding will not serve as a basis of criticism
--or of anything else except a deplorable form of snobbery.
By understanding Four Quartets I mean more, of course, than
the ability to produce a paraphrase of a given passage that
will pass muster: I mean a possession of the poems which
may, together with the ability to see them in relation to the
European tradition of religious verse, take the place of
criticism. The aim of this book is mainly to deal with obstacles
in the way of understanding which readers of Four Quartets
may encounter. I have tried not to avoid any of the difficulties
which I have myself found; and I am indebted to those with
whom I have discussed the poems for suggesting others and
for their help in meeting them. I am aware that 'explanation'
of poetry can very easily falsify it. But a commentary which
contains honest attempts at explanation is in a modest if
only negative way more useful than a commentary which is
a series of evasions. I have in mind two reasons for making
these attempts: they may provide a few signposts for many
readers of the poems; and they will for all readers bring out
by contrast the mastery of the original language. And the
second point is as important as the first. For here--I assume
that the reader has the poems by him--is a voice which
compels attention and commands understanding, a medium
which is hard and which cuts clean, a language which is
charged with controlled suggestion. And it is this compelling
quality which leads us to feel as we read many passages those
'moments of happiness', that 'sudden illumination' which
Mr. Eliot has done more than speak of; to feel that though

We had the experience but missed the meaning,
And approach to the meaning restores the experience
In a different form . . .

-v-