Our reading group just finished studying Four Quartets , the remarkable series of poems T. S. Eliot completed in 1942. Here Eliot explores the riddles of -- and the intersections between -- time and eternity, beginning and end, motion and still-point. In these poems I was frequently reminded of Ecclesiastes and of Pascal's Pensées . We also saw the influence of Dante upon Eliot's imagery. I recommend Thomas Howard's Dove Descending (Ignatius, 2006) as a helpful, and not overly analytic guide for understanding Eliot's words and allusions. Eliot's closing stanza brings together the themes of beginning and end, Eden and afterlife, and the unitary role of fire (which destroys and purifies) and the rose (which is life and beauty). Both the fire and the rose have the one purpose of returning us to the Garden, that we might "know the place for the first time." Eliot writes, "With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this ...