Footfalls Echo

T. S. Eliot’s Burnt Norton.

Photo by Chris Lao on Unsplash

This is the third in a series. The section we have looked at earlier is this.

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future 
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present 
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction 
Remaining a perpetual possibility 
Only in a world of speculation. 
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present. 

These previous lines are the setup to what follows.

They are the way in which Eliot wants us to think about what comes next.

Structurally, he will introduce some indentations into the lines.

We will try and figure out why after we read them.

Footfalls echo in the memory 
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind. 
                                   But to what purpose 
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose leaves
I do not know. 
                                   Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?

One significant word in this passage is echo. This is a type of sound produced when, after it is made, bounces off other objects with enough space between them to allow the ear to pick up the same sound repeated. An echo implies a hollow space, and in this case that space is the “memory” of something that never happened.

We are being led by Eliot’s words down a passage to open a door into a rose garden.

Imagine we are meeting Eliot in the garden behind Burnt Norton.

Here we come to the indentations.

The first line is a single thought though it ends one sentence and starts another that ends halfway into the next line.

Into the rose garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind. 

We have come into this rose garden by listening to the echo of his words in our minds.

Then, rather than laying down the rest on the same line, he jumps down to the next line and indents over until it is seen to follow the last line.

Into the rose garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind. 
                                   But to what purpose 
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose leaves
I do not know. 

If we take this last sentence starting with “But” and divide it into the three lines as Eliot did we can get the idea that Eliot is ambivalent as to whether or not this walk into what-if is a good idea.

Put the two short lines together. “But to what purpose I do not know.”

Take the middle section and relate it back to where we thought we were going — to a rose garden. Instead, we find ourselves “Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose leaves.”

                                   Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?