Since I graduated college, I have never stopped contemplating Eliot's Four Quartets. Especially, the lines I had to memorize. I was re-reading them today and, just like that, I had an epiphany. I always pondered over the following lines:
"Through the unknown, remembered gateWhen the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half heard, in the stillness
Between the two waves of the sea."
I believe I found a new meaning to these words that always haunted me. It came to me when I read, "When the last of earth is left to discover." I realized that Eliot is rewinding time. He mentions the "source of the longest river," or the beginning, the starting place of a river. "The voice of the hidden waterfall," or the sound of something you can't see. So, if you can't see it, you hear it first. Another description that points to what happens in the beginning. Lastly he says "the children in the apple tree." I assume in this line he is talking of Adam and Eve as children playing in the garden. Looking backwards in the poem, you see he mentions an unknown gate. Now, this is pure speculation, but I also believe he means the gate to the Garden of Eden. Eliot ends this thought with "Not known, because not looked for but heard, half heard, in the stillness between the two waves of the sea." Making the point that you can never find something when you are looking for it. It's only after you are done looking, or exploring, that you find earth's last discovery. The reference to "between the two waves of the sea," shows that the answer to life's discovery is quick and silent. It can be found in the in-between.
I'm not sure if this is a revelation to anyone else, but damn I feel pretty good about myself. Oh, I also believe that Eliot references the sea because water symbolizes re-birth (or life beyond death). Genius!
