Sárospataki Füzetek 12. (2008)
2008 / 2. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Frank Sawyer: A reading of T. S. Eliot's Ashwednesday
Frank Sawyer Greek word for truth is ‘non-hidden’). At the same time, one could speak more about the Lady or more about philosophy, and that is still done.22 All of this enters into Eliot’s poem. In general the word ‘veil’ also refers to hidden aspects of spiritual matters beyond our present understanding, as when Tennyson (In Memoriam section LVI) says: O life as futile, then, as frail! O for thy voice to soothe and bless! What hope of answer, or redress? Behind the veil, behind the veil. The veil then is a symbol of holding back what is not yet revealed or unveiled. In the Bible a veil was seen as necessary because we are sinful and God is holy. Moses could not see God face to face (Exodus 33:20), and also needed to veil his face when he came down the mountain from the presence of God to speak to the people (Exodus 34:29-35). Yet when Christ arose, the temple veil was torn in two, making the way to God open (Matthew 27:51). The history of this multiple significance of‘veil’ echoes throughout the poem. As we follow this section four of the poem, Eliot wants us to focus on the pilgrim way of redemption and to be mindful of the dangers of temptation which may lead us astray.2^ Still imagining the figure among the flowers, ...wearing White light folded, sheathing about her, folded. The new years walk, restoring Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem The time. Redeem The unread vision in the higher dream While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse. Here we have the theme of redemption and restoration, the swift passing of youth, and the ‘be mindful’ of death, although even that vision includes the glorious signs of jewels and gold (‘gilded’) ornamentation.^ There are associations again with Dante (Purgatory XXIX) in which a chariot appears. The ‘high dream’ may remind us of Tennyson, who says (In Memoriam, section I): 22 23 24 22 See for example Matthew Bennett, ‘Beyond the Veil: a Woman named Truth and the Truth of Woman’ (in Nietzsche’s philosophy), published in Literature and Theology: An International Journal of Religion, Theory and Culture (Oxford University Press), vol.22, number 3, September 2008, 3i3ff. 23 In this section of the poem there is a reference in Italian - ‘sovegna vos’ - or, ‘be mindful’, which comes from Dante’s Purgatory XXVI, 147. The context there is that we must be ‘mindful’ of punishment for sinners. 24 Elizabeth Schneider, T.S.eliot — the Pattern in the Carpet (University of California, 1975), 12if. explains the source in a poem by Conrad Aiken which Eliot echoes. 76
