“…WILL THE CLEMATIS STRAY DOWN, BEND TO US….”

“…WILL THE CLEMATIS STRAY DOWN, BEND TO US….”

I would venture that Eliot’s reputation as a poet will improve because of the musicality of his language. I say that because of an occurrence when I was in college. I was sitting outside reading Eliot for class when two children who lived next door, Kevin and Beth Mosher, then around 7 and 5, came over to chat. They asked what I was reading and then asked me to read it to them. I read this passage from Burnt Norton:

“IV

Time and the bell have buried the day,
The black cloud carries the sun away.
Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematis
Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray
Clutch and cling?
Chill
Fingers of yew be curled
Down on us? After the kingfisher’s wing
Has answered light to light, and is silent, the light is still
At the still point of the turning world.”

The children were delighted and asked that I read it again and were delighted again.