Exploring a Co-incidence

August 26, 1990

In the last few days, three times I have happened on the sentence, “Old men ought to be explorers.” Once in a poem by Wallace Stevens; another time in some publication; the third time in a dream – or was I just muttering the words while in that strange state of being neither asleep nor awake? Odd, too, now that I am attempting to write about it, I can't find either reference – neither Wallace Stevens nor the article.

“Old men ought to be explorers” is, of course, a line from “East Coker”, one of the “Four Quartets” by T.S. Eliot. I’ve read “Four Quartets” many times. One occasion in the 1950s, when I had some program responsibilities in a Summer Institute, I remember dragooning some people to do portions as choric readings.

So, for a couple of hours I’ve been attempting to “get into” “East Coker”, reading passages aloud, seeking meaning in the rhythms as well as in the words and ideas. No overwhelming enlightenment has occurred. I have never been a scholar of Eliot. Some college English touched on “The Wasteland” and “The Cocktail Party.” I have experienced at least two stage presentations of “Murder in the Cathedral” and seen the movie with O’Toole and Burton. (Sometime I’ll jot down a few paragraphs explaining why, to me, Henry II deserves more praise than Thomas Becket.) “Cats” is great.

Back to “Old men ought to be explorers”, I looked up the time and circumstance which sparked, “East Coker” in Peter Ackroyd"s biography, T.S. ELIOT, A LIFE:

More than 200 years ago, Andrew Eliot left the village of East Coker, came to America; and was the founder of the distinguished Eliot family in America, so important to both Unitarianism and education in our country. The first line of the poem, “In my beginning is my end.” T.S. Eliot visited East Coker in 1937. While there he took photos of the village and the parish church, St. Michael’s. When T.S. Eliot died in 1965, his ashes were interred in St. Michael’s. The last line in “East Coker”, “In my end is my beginning.” The memorial tablet in St. Michael’s reads:

“Remember Thomas Stearns Eliot, poet.
In my beginning is my end
In my end is my beginning.”

In 1940, T.S. Eliot published “East Coker” in a newspaper. The poem proved so popular that it was printed in pamphlet form and sold 12,000 copies. Ackroyd believes “East Coker” was popular because it emphasized historical continuity in a time when that was fragile and uncertain. The Nazis threatened; the air-raid bombings were devastating; invasion seemed imminent. “East Coker” seemed to be an anchor in the storm.

However, T.S. Eliot, commenting on his own creation, said there was no central meaning, “since he had attempted to find a method of uniting on an emotional level a variety of elements which were otherwise quite unrelated.” (Ackroyd, p.256)

Why, then, my repeated experience “old men ought to be explorers”? Was TSE challenging the honesty and supposed wisdom of old men: (II)

“Long hoped for calm, the autumnal serenity
And wisdom of age? Had they deceived us
Or deceived themselves, the quiet-voiced elders
Bequeathing us merely a receipt for deceit?
The serenity only a deliberate hebetude,
The wisdom only the knowledge of dead secrets
Useless in the darkness into which they peered
Or from which they turned their eyes..."

(hebetude = dullness, stupidity)

Or was TSE suggesting that old men should be seeking God – as in the lines: (V, near the end)

“Old men ought to be explorers
Here and there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and porpoise.
In my end is my beginning.”

Do the lines apply? Not to me, consciously at least. “East Coker” has affinities. As I have studied Eliot’s lines, I am reminded of Chapters 4, 6 and parts of Chapter 12 of Ecclesiastes. There are hints of Hindu philosophy in the perpetual wheel of events without beginning or end. A believer in re-incarnation would probably assume that was in Eliot’s mind. Eliot’s statement is good enough for me that “East Coker” has no central meaning. I have wondered if Eliot, unconsciously, was regretting his desertion of the strong Unitarian faith of his forbears and speculating that the colorful rites and creed of Anglican worship were no longer enough. TSE, I’m certain, would reject that unfounded supposition with withering, articulate, poetic scorn.

Yes, Old men ought to be explorers. (Women, I have adhered to Eliot’s word, but fersure, you are included). But we will differ in the destination of the trek. What am I exploring? I guess you’ll have to see me, read me, talk to me or observe me to make a judgment on that. But won’t you have to concede that your judgment might be in error? Heigh-ho! (as Vonnegut writes)