Man and War

At the start of section 2 in Burnt Norton, Eliot introduces us to war by describing it as though with remembrance. He doesn't go into full detail though as he does later in the other poems. He describes War in reference to time past. It's a little easier to put this brief reference to war into context with the end of the first section. "Time past and time future / What might have been and what has been / Point to one end, which is always present." This is the end of the first section. The second section with imagery of the broken down machine of society.

War is presented not in detail but as an example of how the past recreates the present. The imagery ends with reconciliation "among the stars". Is this reconciliation on a religious level where now the boarhound and the boar are reconciled with god? Is this simply reconciliation on the physical level? Is this reconciliation a false reconciliation? I think it is false. "Pursue their pattern as before" makes me see the war imagery as a repetitive cycle which supports Eliot's argument that the past simply reforms into the present. I think the only reconciliation which occurs according to the poem is internal reconciliation.

If people find reconciliation "among the stars" (religious interpretation or not) then room for justification exists for perpetuating the war of the past. This was incredible for Eliot to comment upon. He wrote it in 1936 while in Europe a second world war was brewing. The historical context and commentary of this poetry becomes pretty powerful stuff. I didn't give it enough notice upon my first few read throughs.