- Source
Burnt Norton V · Line 25 ·the figure of the ten stairs
St John of the Cross, in The Dark Night, describes ten steps of a ‘mystic ladder of love’ by which the soul climbs to God. The poem invokes the figure as a pattern of movement: the ascent is a succession of steps, a detail of movement, while its source and goal — love — does not move. The mystic’s ladder complements the descent of the third movement: the way up and the way down.
Sources St John of the Cross, Dark Night, Book II, chs. 19–20 (locator to be verified)