There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.
T. S. EliotRead
April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Eliot describes April as a harsh month that brings new life, awakening painful memories and desires.
In this quote, T. S. Eliot reflects on the complexity of spring as a time of renewal and awakening, juxtaposing the beauty of blooming flowers with the harshness of confronting past memories and desires. April signifies a transition, where the once dormant landscape comes alive, but this revival also stirs painful emotions and memories that might be uncomfortable for individuals to face, thus branding it cruel.
Themes
AprilCruelMemoryDesireSpringRenewal
In practice
Example use cases
In a literary analysis of Eliot's work, I might quote, 'April is the cruelest month' to discuss themes of rebirth.
More from T. S. Eliot
All quotes →Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm. But the harm does not interest them.
T. S. EliotRead
I am an Anglo-Catholic in religion, a classicist in literature and a royalist in politics.
T. S. EliotRead
If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?
T. S. EliotRead
For I have known them all already, known them all— Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.
T. S. EliotRead
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
T. S. EliotRead
Similar quotes
one pierced moment whiter than the rest -turning from the tremendous lie of sleep i watch the roses of the day grow deep.
E. E. CummingsRead
Cold glass, how you insert yourself Between myself and myself. I scratch like a cat. The blood that runs is dark fruit- An effect, a cosmetic. You smile. No, it is not fatal.
Sylvia PlathRead
Have you reckon’d a thousand acres much? have you reckon’d the earth much? Have you practis’d so long to learn to read? Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
Walt WhitmanRead
In this particular tub, two knees jut up like icebergs, while minute brown hairs rise on arms and legs in a fringe of kelp; green soap navigates the tidal slosh of seas breaking on legendary beaches; in faith we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail among sacred islands of the mad till death shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.
Sylvia PlathRead
I sometimes hold it half a sin To put in words the grief I feel For words, like nature, half reveal And half conceal the soul within. But, for the unquiet heart and brain A use measured language lie's The sad mechanic exercise Like dull narcotic's, numbing pain In words, like weeds, I'll wrap me o'er Like coarsest clothes against the cold But large grief which these enfold Is given in outline and no more.
Alfred Lord TennysonRead
The feel of not to feel it, When there is none to heal it Nor numbed sense to steel it.
John KeatsRead