1. Prosody

   The fourth movement: a lyric of ten lines

   Burnt Norton IV · The whole movement

   Each quartet’s fourth movement is its shortest — a compressed lyric that works like the slow movement of a string quartet. Burnt Norton’s is only ten lines: short, irregular lines, delicate rhyme, and a single question hanging over the grave-like dark (the yew, the chill, the clematis). It resolves, briefly, in the kingfisher’s flash of light answering light.

   Compare the later fourth movements: East Coker’s hymn of the wounded surgeon, the prayer to the Lady in The Dry Salvages, and the dove of Little Gidding.

   Established Light & dark Yew Bell

   Sources Gardner 1949 † (locator to be verified)

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