Then came, at a predetermined moment, a moment in time
and of time,
A moment not out of time, but in time, in what we call history:
transecting, bisecting the world of time,
a moment in time but not like a moment of time,
A moment in time but time was made through that moment:
for without the meaning there is no time,
and that moment of time gave the meaning.–Eliot, Choruses from “The Rock”
Perfect.
AMDG
I have thought often of that “bisecting time” figure since I read it many years ago.
I went to a lot of trouble to get that to format more or less correctly on my computer screen, but on my phone it’s a mess. I hope y’all are seeing it somewhat as it should be.
I think we are–“Then, A moment & A Moment at the far left with a small indent in the lines below those.
AMDG
It should look like it does here–scroll down about 2/3 of the way, to the end of page 107. And you can read the sad aftermath of the moment.:-/
Merry Christmas to all!
Well, not quite like, then, but close. I can never get stuff to look the way I want on Blogger.
I refuse to submit to gloomy aftermath. It’s just a distraction.
AMDG
Hmm, thought I left a comment here earlier. Must have forgotten to click “post”. What I said was that the gloomy aftermath isn’t all he describes, as you know if you read another page or two of the poem
Regarding format, html is designed to leave a lot of the details of layout to the software that displays it, so getting complicated indents and such to look exactly the way you want them on all platforms can be almost impossible.
This might be a good way to get me to read Eliot–just lure me on a page or two at a time.
AMDG
That poem might be a good place to start, actually. Pretty straightforward, without much of Eliot’s usual jive.
“Pretty straightforward, without much of Eliot’s usual jive.”
I’d never seen it before and was surprised by how non-obscure it is. Maybe because it’s not stand-alone poetry but part of a pageant play he was commissioned to write for London’s churches. There’s a snippet of an article on that here.
Well, now I’m curious, as I’d always assumed that the rest of The Rock was negligible. I have, though, always thought these choruses very memorable, though I can see why critics who don’t share Eliot’s belief wouldn’t find them all that interesting.
Light On Dark Water 
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