Tuesday, May 17, 2016

To be redeemed from fire by fire (T. S. Eliot)


   The dove descending breaks the air  
With flame of incandescent terror  
Of which the tongues declare  
The one discharge from sin and error.  
The only hope, or else despair  
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre –  
To be redeemed from fire by fire.  
                                     
  Who then devisted the torment?  Love.  
Love is the unfamiliar Name  
Behind the hands that wove  
The intolerable shirt of flame  
Which human power cannot remove.  
We only live, only suspire  
Consumed by either fire or fire.   

--T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding (Part IV)
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