A timeless moment

When I was 17 or 18, I wouldn’t have believed anyone who told me I’d be wishing to quote T S Eliot later in life.   I can still remember my outrage at being asked to make sense of ‘The Waste Land’.

But strange things happen!   This is an extract from ‘Little Gidding’ (No. 4 of Four Quartets) and it makes me catch my breath.  If you have ever been alone in a country church on a dark Sunday afternoon, I hope you will feel it too.  

Lynne Jenkins, who writes ‘Echoes of the Past’, has kindly allowed me to use one of her photos;   Lynne loves exploring old churches, and I’m always fascinated by her discoveries.  This picture was taken at St Peter’s Church at Belton-in-Rutland.    I thought it was perfect!

The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree
Are of equal duration.  A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.  So, while the light fails
On a winter’s afternoon, in a secluded chapel
History is now and England.

                                                                           T S Eliot, ‘Little Gidding’ (1942)

Photo copyright © Lynne Jenkins