Ash-Wednesday (1930) Summary

Section I: Eliot talks of deciding to curtail striving and worrying in life as he ages. He relates that there is a time to stop and enjoy living, without everything racing by in a blur. He says that a moment in time is only for that moment and passes, so we must fully experience each moment. Eliot says we must learn to sit still and care about the important things in life and not care about the unimportant distractions. He feels he needs God's mercy and hopes judgment is not too harsh.

Section II: Eliot relates his feelings to the reader that humanity is better off in the ground if they cannot learn to be good to one another. That at least there, as lifeless bone, they cannot harm one another. He says the grave is our inheritance and the desolation therein, the...