In the Beginning is My End

P.72-73

In the words below, T.S. Eliot  is referring to the visions and writings of the 14th century English anchoress Julian of Norwich : ‘All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.’ 

With this final stanza of his great poem 'Four Quartet’, Eliot brings together all the themes that he has been exploring throughout his book.

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started 

And know the place for the first time.

Through the unknown, remembered gate

When the last of earth left to discover

Is that which was the beginning;

At the source of the longest river

The voice of the hidden waterfall

And the children in the apple-tree

Not known, because not looked for

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness

Between two waves of the sea.

Quick now, here, now, always-

A condition of complete simplicity

( Costing not less than everything)

And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well

When the tongues of flame are infolded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one.