Four Quartets - East Coker Summary

Section I

Eliot talks of the natural activities common to life in a town. He shows that people live, work, play, build, love, marry, and die and then the next generation comes along to do the same thing. He talks of how a person's birth starts the progression to death, this is the order of things, and we cannot change that.

Section II

Eliot speaks of the limited value of knowledge that one gains from experience and many years of life. Despite all our work, thoughts, accomplishments and opinions, in the end, true wisdom comes from being humble, not proud or arrogant.

Section III

Eliot continues to press his point that man, despite all his accomplishments and titles is heading to a dark place—death. He reiterates the same point established in section II...