| The topic of time serves as an important theme for Eliot’s poetry. Eliot seems to endeavor to find a way to fight against the lapse of time. for the passage of time contains a huge destructive force to the human beings. Throughout his writing career, Eliot has been influenced by many different philosophical thoughts and religious views, as well as the great change occurs at the turning point of the centuries. Therefore, Eliot’s attitude towards time varies from period to period and the time has left different silhouette throughout Eliot’s poetry. Initially, Eliot’s attitude towards time can be called optimistic, which is similar to the thought of "carp diem." Later, Eliot gradually realizes time’s destructive power and loses his confidence when facing the unceasing passage of time. After his conversion to the Church of England, Eliot seems to find the answer to his question, i.e. conquering the time. In order to conquer the time, Eliot adopts three different ways. First of all, he breaks the linear movement of time and fragments his poems into a great number of pieces. In addition, he intends to create a new tradition which exclusively belongs to the world of literature and has no connection with the temporal time. Thirdly, Eliot re-erects his religious belief to the Christianity so that one can find the still point of the turning world, where can only be provided by the Christianity and the God. All of the mentioned solutions aim at locating a still point in the turning world, which includes the past, the present, and the future at one moment, which is timeless and at exactly the moment of present, so that human beings in the modern world can find their ways to obtain the salvation, the eternity, and the Absolute.The main body of this study can be divided into three parts and the topic of each part has been listed below, respectively.In the first part, this paper focus on the formation of Eliot’s concept towards time, which is influenced by various factors including his childhood in America, his study in Harvard and Europe, and the change of his religious preference. Eliot formed the concept of the existence of time when he was in St. Louis and he gradually altered his point of view after his study in Harvard and Europe. Ultimately, he formed a totally different view after his conversion by deeming Christianity as a way to receive redemption and the eternity.The second part mainly focuses on time’s wavering silhouette in Eliot’s poems of different ages. Considering the change of Eliot’s attitude towards time in his life, its reflection on Eliot’s poems also varies in different stages of Eliot’s writing career. Time shows its unceasing movement throughout Eliot’s poems, yet its pace is comparatively slower and leaves opportunity for the human beings in Eliot’s early poems. However, the image of time becomes a hell-like one in The Waste Land and the people in this world do not have any opportunity to conquer the time and can only move to the direction of death, which leads to their depravation and evilness. By contrast, time in the Ash Wednesday and Four Quartets becomes the enemy of people who want to obtain their eternity and is conquered by the poet ultimately.The third part is about the three solutions that Eliot adopts to conquer the time. Firstly, Eliot breaks the linear movement of the narrative time in his poems by separating them into different single pieces and creates a high artistic value. Secondly, Eliot creates a new history and tradition for literature and renders it free from the shackle of temporal time. Thirdly, Eliot opines that Christianity is also a way to conquer the time.After consulting the relevant references and careful scrutiny of Eliot’s poetry, a conclusion has been drawn in this paper that Eliot intends to find the still point of the turning world, where combines everything from the past, the present and the future, and creates a timeless world so as to conquer the unceasing lapse of temporal time and obtain the eternity and the salvation. |
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