Choruses from The Rock

by T.S.Eliot 1934 The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven, The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit. O perpetual revolution of configured stars, O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons, O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying! The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to God. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust. The lot of man is ceaseless labor, Or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder, Or irregular labour, which is not pleasant. I have trodden the winepress alone, and I know That it is hard to be really useful, resigning The things that men count for happiness, seeking The good deeds that lead to obscurity, accepting With equal face those that bring ignominy, The applause of all or the love of none. All men are ready to invest their money But most expect dividends. I say to you: Make perfect your will. I say: take no thought of the harvest, But only of proper sowing. The world turns and the world changes, But one thing does not change. In all of my years, one thing does not change, However you disguise it, this thing does not change: The perpetual struggle of Good and Evil. Forgetful, you neglect your shrines and churches; The men you are in these times deride What has been done of good, you find explanations To satisfy the rational and enlightened mind. Second, you neglect and belittle the desert. The desert is not remote in southern tropics The desert is not only around the corner, The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you, The desert is in the heart of your brother. The good man is the builder, if he build what is good. I will show you the things that are not being done, And some of the things that were long ago done, That you may take heart, Make perfect your will. Let me show you the work of the humble. Listen. In the vacant places We will build with new bricks There are hands and machines And clay for new brick And lime for new mortar Where the bricks are fallen We will build with new stone Where the beams are rotten We will build with new timbers Where the word is unspoken We will build with new speech There is work together A Church for all And a job for each Every man to his work. What life have you, if you have not life together? There is not life that is not in community, And no community not lived in praise of GOD. Even the anchorite who meditates alone, For whom the days and nights repeat the praise of GOD, Prays for the Church, the Body of Christ incarnate. And now you live dispersed on ribbon roads, And no man knows or cares who is his neighbor Unless his neighbor makes too much disturbance, But all dash to and fro in motor cars, Familiar with the roads and settled nowhere. Nor does the family even move about together, But every son would have his motor cycle, And daughters ride away on casual pillions. Much to cast down, much to build, much to restore; Let the work not delay, time and the arm not waste; Let the clay be dug from the pit, let the saw cut the stone, Let the fire not be quenched in the forge. The Word of the LORD came unto me, saying: O miserable cities of designing men, O wretched generation of enlightened men, Betrayed in the mazes of your ingenuities, Sold by the proceeds of your proper inventions: I have given you hands which you turn from worship, I have given you speech, for endless palaver, I have given you my Law, and you set up commissions, I have given you lips, to express friendly sentiments, I have given you hearts, for reciprocal distrust. I have given you the power of choice, and you only alternate Between futile speculation and unconsidered action. Many are engaged in writing books and printing them, Many desire to see their names in print, Many read nothing but the race reports. Much is your reading, but not the Word of GOD, Much is your building, but not the House of GOD, Will you build me a house of plaster, with corrugated roofing, To be filled with a litter of Sunday newspapers? And the wind shall say: “Here were decent godless people: Their only monument the asphalt road And a thousand lost golf balls.” When the Stranger says: “What is the meaning of this city ? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?” What will you answer? “We all dwell together To make money from each other”? or “This is a community”? Oh my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger. Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions. There is one who remembers the way to your door: Life you may evade, but Death you shall not. You shall not deny the Stranger. They constantly try to escape From the darkness outside and within By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good. But the man that is shall shadow The man that pretends to be. Then it seemed as if men must proceed from light to light, in the light of the Word, Through the Passion and Sacrifice saved in spite of their negative being; Bestial as always before, carnal, self seeking as always before, selfish and purblind as ever before, Yet always struggling, always reaffirming, always resuming their march on the way that was lit by the light; Often halting, loitering, straying, delaying, returning, yet following no other way. But it seems that something has happened that has never happened before: though we know not just when, or why, or how, or where. Men have left GOD not for other gods, they say, but for no God; and this has never happened before That men both deny gods and worship gods, professing first Reason, And then Money, and Power, and what they call Life, or Race, or Dialectic. The Church disowned, the tower overthrown, the bells upturned, what have we to do But stand with empty hands and palms turned upwards In an age which advances progressively backwards? There came one who spoke of the shame of Jerusalem And the holy places defiled; Peter the Hermit, scourging with words. And among his hearers were a few good men, Many who were evil, And most who were neither, Like all men in all places. In spite of all the dishonour, the broken standards, the broken lives, The broken faith in one place or another, There was something left that was more than the tales Of old men on winter evenings. Our age is an age of moderate virtue And moderate vice The soul of Man must quicken to creation. Out of the meaningless practical shapes of all that is living or lifeless Joined with the artist’s eye, new life, new form, new colour. Out of the sea of sound the life of music, Out of the slimy mud of words, out of the sleet and hail of verbal imprecisions, Approximate thoughts and feelings, words that have taken the place of thoughts and feelings, There spring the perfect order of speech, and the beauty of incantation. LORD, shall we not bring these gifts to Your service? Shall we not bring to Your service all our powers For life, for dignity, grace and order, And intellectual pleasures of the senses? The LORD who created must wish us to create And employ our creation again in His service Which is already His service in creating. For Man is joined in spirit and body, And therefore must serve as spirit and body. Visible and invisible, two wolds meet in Man; Visible and invisible must meet in His Temple; You must not deny the body. Now you shall see the Temple completed: After much striving, after many obstacles; The work of creation is never without travail; The formed stone, the visible crucifix, The dressed altar, the lifting light, Light Light The visible reminder of Invisible Light. Be not too curious of Good and Evil; Seek not to count the future waves of Time; But be ye satisfied that you have light Enough to take your step and find your foothold. O Light Invisible, we praise Thee! Too bright for mortal vision. O Greater Light, we praise Thee for the less; The eastern light our spires touch at morning, The light that slants upon our western doors at evening, The twilight over stagnant pools at batflight, Moon light and star light, owl and moth light, Glow-worm glowlight on a grassblade. O Light Invisible, we worship Thee! We thank Thee for the light that we have kindled, The light of altar and of sanctuary; Small lights of those who meditate at midnight And lights directed through the coloured panes of windows And light reflected from the polished stone, The gilded carven wood, the coloured fresco. Our gaze is submarine, our eyes look upward And see the light that fractures through unquiet water. We see the light but see not whence it comes. O Light Invisible, we glorify Thee! In our rhythm of earthly life we tire of light. We are glad when the day ends, when the play ends; and ecstasy is too much pain. We are children quickly tired: children who are up in the night and fall asleep as the rocket is fired; and the day is long for work or play. We tire of distraction or concentration, we sleep and are glad to sleep, Controlled by the rhythm of blood and the day and the night and the seasons. And we must extinguish the candle, put out the light and relight it; Forever must quench, forever relight the flame. Therefore we thank Thee for our little light, that is dappled with shadow. We thank Thee who hast moved us to building, to finding, to forming at the ends of our fingers and beams of our eyes. And when we have built an altar to the Invisible Light, we may set thereon the little lights for which our bodily vision is made. And we thank Thee that darkness reminds us of light. O Light Invisible, we give Thee thanks for Thy great glory!