The Dry Salvages

poem by Eliot

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The Dry Salvages, poem by T.S. Eliot, first published in 1941 in the New English Weekly and in pamphlet form. The third of the four poems in The Four Quartets, it was written in strong-stress “native” metre and divided into five sections. The Dry Salvages (pronounced to rhyme with assuages) resumes the themes of time and history set forth in “Burnt Norton” and “East Coker.”

The title of the poem refers to a formation of rocks near Cape Ann, Mass., which Eliot had visited as a child. In addition to its images of the Atlantic Ocean, the work describes the continuous power of the Mississippi River, another memory from Eliot’s childhood in St. Louis.

The poem is primarily concerned with experience and the human response to Christian doctrines, particularly the Incarnation. Like the other three poems, “The Dry Salvages” struggles with what it acknowledges are difficult, often contradictory concepts that can only be partially understood:

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

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A Study of Poetry

But to apprehend
The point of intersection of the timeless
With time, is an occupation for the saint.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.