(Section V)

The "Little Gidding" is the final work of a quartet of poems written by T. S. Eliot. The poem is divided into five lengthy sections, and each section could suffice as an individual poem. The beginning of the first section sets up numerous paradoxes, and the second part of this section tells of a journey. This is a journey which does not vary and always has the same outcome. A rhyme scheme is present within the first three stanzas of the second section, but it dissolves after that. Overall the section tells of the narrator encountering the ghost of a former master while the narrator is traveling down the path of life. The meeting of the ghost is significant on both the literal and figurative levels. The third section has several allusions to The Bible, especially Jesus. This section addresses the past and its...