My Secret Passion

West Virginia Public Broadcasting | By Jim Lange

Published May 18, 2022 at 9:28 AM EDT

Over the years, I have learned not to bore people with my secret passion: T.S. Eliot.

I have several books and videos about his life, the interpretation of his works and a fine CD set of Jeremy Irons reading the sublime "Four Quartets." In short, he has been my companion for over four decades with the intensity increasing as the years pass.

When it comes to Eliot or any serious poetry, I have come to accept that most people fall under the category of who-has-time-for-such-things?

I cannot blame them. It is certainly enough for most people just to keep up with the daily struggles and tasks of life. Yet, conversely I cannot imagine a life without the soul nourishment of:

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.

Or:

What might have been is an abstraction

Remaining a perpetual possibility

Only in a world of speculation.

Or how Eliot observed the modern condition, in 1936 with "Burnt Norton," with these prophetic words:

Over the strained time-ridden faces

Distracted from distraction by distraction

All this leads me to the purpose of this post.

In 2015, I did an interview with author Thomas Howard who wrote a marvelous book about "Four Quartets" called "Dove Descending: A Journey Into T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets." Sadly, I discovered that the author had passed in 2020.

To talk with someone who knew and loved Mr. Eliot's work as me was sheer joy.

Here's my interview with this remarkable man:

THOMAS HOWARD INTERVIEW JULY 2015

A conversation based on his book "Dove Descending."