‘Ash Wednesday’ was the first major poem Eliot wrote after his conversion to Anglicanism. It was published three years after this conversion, in 1930. The title of the poem comes from the Christian fast day that marks the beginning of Lent. It taps into some of the major themes of Eliot’s poetry and life, these include hope and despair.
Explore Ash Wednesday
- 1 Summary of Ash Wednesday
- 2 Structure of Ash Wednesday
- 3 Poetic Techniques – Ash Wednesday
- 4 Analysis of Ash Wednesday
Summary of Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday’ by T. S. Eliot is a complex, six-part poem concerned with a speaker’s hope for human salvation in a faithless world.
The poem takes the reader through stages in a speaker’s faith. At first, he is hopeless and overly concerned with his own human error and inability to accept God fully into his heart. As the poem progresses, he goes through a series of metaphorical transformations in which he’s eaten by white leopards and made to climb up a staircase away from the past. These trials improve him and help him leave behind the sins of the past.
By the time he reaches the sixth section of ‘Ash Wednesday’ he has changed. Human salvation now seems possible, and the hopelessness of the first section has left the speaker’s mind.
Structure of Ash Wednesday
‘Ash Wednesday’ by T. S. Eliot is a six-section poem that is further divided into stanzas of uneven lengths. The stanzas are quite different in the number of lines they contain. Some stretch all the way up to twenty-five, while others are only one or two lines long. Eliot did not choose to make use of a specific rhyme scheme within ‘Ash Wednesday’, but there are scattered examples of rhyme throughout the poem.
These appear at the ends of and within the lines. Some are full or perfect rhymes, while others are half rhymes. Also known as slant or partial rhyme. Also seen throughout is the repetition of assonance or consonance. This means that either a vowel or consonant sound is reused within one line or multiple lines of verse.
Poetic Techniques – Ash Wednesday
Eliot Makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘Ash Wednesday’. These include alliteration, enjambment, and anaphora. Alliteration occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same letter. For example, “renounce” and “rejoice”. This occurs in part I, stanza three.
Another important technique commonly used in poetry is enjambment. It occurs when a line is cut off before its natural stopping point. Enjambment forces a reader down to the next line, and the next quickly. One has to move forward to comfortably resolve a phrase or sentence. For example, the transition between stanzas one and two in part II.
Eliot also makes use of anaphora, or the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines, usually in succession. The first stanza is a great example of this technique. Eliot uses the phrase “Because I do not hope” four times in a row to start the poem off.
Analysis of Ash Wednesday
Part I
Stanza One
Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?
In the first stanza of ‘Ash Wednesday,’ the speaker begins with a statement of hopelessness. He has no hope that his life is going to change or that he will again find joy. This is all because he has lost his faith. He states that he no longer “strive(s) towards such things”. The man feels as though his life and fate are out of his control; there is no reason to fly. He’s an “agèd eagle” who will surely not reach its destination before its death. The man is so downtrodden that he cannot mourn this change altogether, although these lines do feel very much like mourning.
The repetition of “Because I do not hope” at the beginning of the poem sets the mood for the stanzas to come. Even though there is a return to hope in some sections of ‘Ash Wednesday,’ the majority of the poem is permeated with this feeling of hopelessness.
Stanza Two
Because I do not hope to know
The infirm glory of the positive hour
(…)
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is
nothing again
The second stanza of ‘Ash Wednesday’ also makes use of anaphora with the repetition of “Because I” in four of the lines. In these lines, he expands on what he initiated in the first stanza. He expresses his inability or willingness to hope for any change in the future. There will be no “positive hour” in the future, nor will there be anywhere that he can take pleasure.
The fourth and fifth lines allude to his ability to draw close to God. This distance forces him to cut himself off from the “where trees flower, and spring flows.”
Stanza Three
Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
(…)
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice
The use of anaphora in these lines, and the general repetition of phrases, mimics the stuttering voice of someone struggling to find the right words. These lines are very human. It is clear in these stanzas of ‘Ash Wednesday,’ despite the complicated diction and syntax, that Eliot’s speaker is struggling to come to terms with aspects of his faith that trouble him. He believes in God and religion, but there is something about its connection to human life that he is struggling with.
He expresses his belief that he can’t change the human condition. His renouncements of the “blessèd face” and “the voice” show that he is trying to reject parts of the world that tempt and control him.
Stanza Four
And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
(…)
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us
The fourth stanza takes the form of a prayeras he asks God to “have mercy upon us” and help him forget that which he discusses too frequently with himself. These are the human matters of the heart that are coming between him and his faith.
Stanzas Five and Six
Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
(…)Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
The fifth stanza alludes to the eagle reference in the first and the power, or lack thereof, of wings. The symbol of wings represents the speaker’s ability to navigate the world, and his faith, successfully. They are “merely vans to beat the air” now. They cannot help him fly.
He asks God to help “us,” the human race, and “Teach us” what we need to know to move faithfully through life. The last two lines of this section are taken from the Ave Maria.
Part II
Stanza One
Lines 1-14
Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree
In the cool of the day, having fed to sateity
On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been
(…)
We shine with brightness. And I who am here dissembled
Proffer my deeds to oblivion, and my love
To the posterity of the desert and the fruit of the gourd.
The second section of ‘Ash Wednesday’ begins with a very evocative image. The poet creates a scene of “three white leopards” that sit underneath a “juniper tree”. He appeals to a “Lady,” a Mary-like figure, while crafting an extended metaphor depicting the leopards eating his speaker’s body.
He states very clearly, unusual for Eliot that they ate the speaker’s legs, heart, and liver and all of that which had been contained “In the hollow round of my skull”. They consumed his whole body, brain included. He asks God what comes next, will “these bones live?”
In answer, his bones speak. Through this very unusual use of personification, Eliot allows Mary’s voice to emerge from the bones, shining a “brightness.” They are still alive with power. The speaker devotes himself to the future “of the desert” and the “fruit of the gourd.” Religious symbolism fills these lines.
Lines 15-25
It is this which recovers
My guts the strings of my eyes and the indigestible portions
Which the leopards reject. The Lady is withdrawn
(…)
Prophesy to the wind, to the wind only for only
The wind will listen. And the bones sang chirping
With the burden of the grasshopper, saying
The next section of this stanza makes use of repetition as he describes the state of his eaten body, the movements of the lady, and his contemplations. The “whiteness” of the lady is emphasized, a representative of her purity and chastity. It is connected with the bones of the speaker, which have been laid bare, devoid of their sin.
He is now “concentrated in purpose” after having been eaten alive. The last lines contain a prophecy about the wind and the response from his “bones,” which are really at this point a symbol for his soul. The last line of this stanza is enjambment, encouraging a reader to move quickly into the second stanza of part II.
Stanza Two
Lady of silences
Calm and distressed
Torn and most whole
Rose of memory
(…)
Word of no speech
Grace to the Mother
For the Garden
Where all love ends.
The second stanza contains the words of the speaker’s bones/soul. The bones “sang chirping” about the Lady. He uses the rose as a symbol of where “all loves end” and the end of “love unsatisfied.” This is contrasted with “love satisfied” and a series of other phrases associated with endings and new beginnings. The speaker is celebrating and commenting on the new life he has been given after being eaten by the metaphorical leopards in the first stanza.
Stanza Three
Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining
We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each
(…)
Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.
The third stanza of this part of ‘Ash Wednesday’ returns the reader to the “juniper tree” where the “bones snag”. The imagery in these lines is very evocative. He describes the way they’re scattered and shining and doing “little good to each other.” There is a peace to these lines that certainly was not present in the first part of ‘Ash Wednesday’. Here, the speaker uses the desert as a place of silence and contemplation. “This,” he says, “is the and which yes / Shall divide by lot.” But, that division in the and does not matter.
Part III
Stanza One
At the first turning of the second stair
I turned and saw below
(…)
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
The deceitul face of hope and of despair.
The third part of ‘Ash Wednesday’ is the shortest. The first stanza introduces the staircase. It is up its levels that the speaker will climb along the way, leaving his past behind. When he turned to look behind him, he saw “The same shape twisted on the banister / Under the vapor in the fetid air.” Below him, it is dark; his past self is there, struggling “With the devil of the stairs.” It is the deceit of this devil that he’s trying to leave behind. Fake hope and despair are going to be in the past.
Stanza Two
At the second turning of the second stair
(…)
Or the toothed gullet of an agèd shark.
He makes progress in the next stanza but again looks behind him. There, he can no longer see the “twisting, turning below.” It was all dark. Eliot uses the powerful simile of an old man’s mouth to depict the sight of the staircase below his speaker. It is “Damp, jaggèd, like an old man’s mouth driveling, beyond / repair.”
This section of the poem is taken very much from Dante’s Purgatorio, the section of The Divine Comedy in which Dante is led up the stairs out of Hell and into the realm of God.
Stanzas Three, Four, and Five
At the first turning of the third stair
Was a slotted window bellied like the figs’s fruit
And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene
(…)Lord, I am not worthy
Lord, I am not worthybut speak the word only.
At the third “turning of the…stair,” he looks out the window. From that location, he can see “The broad-backed figure” who is wearing “blue and green”. This is a Pan-like creature who is playing an antique flute. He is enchanting everything around him with his sweet hair and mouth. The “brown” colors are emphasized within the stanza. Pan has always been a symbol of unrestrained lust, and as the speaker climbs past the window, he is leaving that part of himself behind as well.
The section ends with the speaker doing his best to continue resisting sin while praying to God for strength and the ability to “speak the word only” or know only Christ and his revelations.
Part IV
Stanza One
Who walked between the violet and the violet
Whe walked between
(…)
Who moved among the others as they walked,
Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs
The first stanza of part IV of ‘Ash Wednesday’ begins with the speaker designing the “Lady,” to whom many of the previous lines and stanzas were dedicated. Like Mary, she goes in blue and white. They are “Mary’s colors.” She speaks about “trivial things” because sheis “ignorant” of “eternal dolour” or sorrow.
The Lady has power; the speaker is in awe of her. She guides him just as Beatrice guided Dante in The Divine Comedy.
Stanzas Two and Three
Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand
In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary’s colour,
(…)
Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring
One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing
The Lady’s powers allow her to transform the world. Eliot uses the phrase “Sovegna von” in the third line of the second stanza. Eliot took this phrase from The Divine Comedy. It loosely translates to “You should remember.” The importance of this woman for the speaker and for the world at large is very clear.
The Lady moves through the world, and the “fiddles and flutes,” symbols of lust and frivolity, are taken away. She is also described as existing in a liminal space between “sleeping and waking.” This is similar to the purgatory the speaker has been rising out of.
Stanza Four
White light folded, sheathing about her, folded.
The new years walk, restoring
(…)
The unread vision in the higher dream
While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.
The Lady carries with her a restorative power that works all over the world. It is “sheathing her,” and the years are restored around her. The “new verse” brings back the “ancient rhyme,” and time is redeemed. The theme of rebirth is very present in these lines as the speaker marvels at the woman’s powers. The way she moves through the world is itself an embodiment of the world the speaker is trying to reach. As he’s on his way out of hell, through purgatory, and ridding himself of lustful sin, she is there as a guide.
Stanzas Five to Eight
The silent sister veiled in white and blue
Between the yews, behind the garden god,
(…)
Redeem the time, redeem the dream
The token of the word unheard, unspokenTill the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew
And after this our exile
The last lines of this section allude to death and speak about the “yew” tree. It is there as a symbol for the end and brings with it a higher plane. There will be the Lady, the heavenly world the speaker is seeking out. She is “veiled in white and blue,” as mentioned previously, and does not have to speak to be a representative of “the word.”
Part V
Stanzas One and Two
If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
(…)
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.O my people, what have I done unto thee.
Part V begins with a reference to the “word.” This refers to the words of Christ as well as Christ himself. It embodies all that Christ brought to earth and all that God intended. The speaker meditates on “the word” and what it means for it to remain unspoken or unheard.
He comes to the conclusion that even if the word is silent in a faithless world, that does not mean it doesn’t exist.
The second stanza is only one line long and is connected to the Catholic liturgy, The Improperia, of the Good Friday service.
Stanza Three
Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
(…)
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny
the voice
The speaker considers the state of the world and wonders aloud where it will “sound.” The answer is “Not here.” There is not enough “silence” in this world for it to sound out. He moves through the possibilities of the sea and islands, as well as the mainland, “in the desert or the rain land.” All of these places will not work because those who live in them and walk on their lands are in darkness.
They will not hear the word of God. There will be no “place of grace for those who avoid the face.” Nor will there be time to “rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny / the voice”. These lines are clearer than most within this poem and speak very clearly to the problem the speaker is having.
Stanza Four
Will the veiled sister pray for
Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee,
(…)
Who will not go away and cannot pray:
Pray for those who chose and oppose
He asks if the “veiled sister,” the Lady about whom he has been so excited, “pray for / Those who walk in darkness” without the sound or light of the world. This connects back to the light that emanated from the speaker’s bones in the second section. Repetition is very important in these lines as well as the speaker considers what is going to happen to “those who wait / In darkness.” He doesn’t know if she will pray for them or not. The children at the gate, “who will not go away and cannot pray,” need her.
It is easy to relate these lines back to the beginning of the poem, where the speaker seemed to be having so much trouble himself with prayer and dedication.
Stanza Five, Six, and Seven
O my people, what have I done unto thee.
Will the veiled sister between the slender
Yew trees pray for those who offend her
(…)
The desert in the garden the garden in the desert
Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered apple-seed.O my people.
The same phrase, “O my people, what have I done unto thee,” is repeated again. It comes from Micah 6:3. God addresses those who have fallen from him. Thequestions about the “veiled sister” are also repeated. There are many out there, those who are scared, unable to surrender to faith and even those who have actively offended the sister.
Part VI
Stanzas One and Two
Although I do not hope to turn again
Although I do not hope
Although I do not hope to turnWavering between the profit and the loss
In this brief transit where the dreams cross
(…)
The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying
Unbroken wings
The sixth section of ‘Ash Wednesday’ begins with another use of anaphora, relating back to the beginning of the poem when the speaker’s words were stunted. The word “because” has been replaced with the word “although” in this section. This opens up the possibility that things are actually going to change for him. He does not “hope to turn” to the world so he can enjoy the world as he used to. The hopelessness of the first stanza is gone. The image of the wings is also reintroduced. The wings are depicted as sails that fly seaward, and they are no longer broken.
Stanzas Three and Four
And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
(…)
The empty forms between the ivory gates
And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earthThis is the time of tension between dying and birth
(…)
Let the other yew be shaken and reply.
The next two stanzas represent the major themes found in the rest of the poem. The speaker meditates on everything that has thus been spoken about, freedom, hope, faith, and the stalking nature of sin. He is changed, which is clear but still cautions the reader to remember the sin and keep from falling back into old patterns. It is a “time of tension,” he states, between “dying and birth.”
Stanzas Five and Six
Blessèd sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit
of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
(…)
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separatedAnd let my cry come unto Thee.
The last two stanzas of ‘Ash Wednesday’ are prayer-like. He addresses the “Blessèd sister, holy mother” again. He refers to her as the “spirit / of the garden” and asks for help avoiding falsehoods of the past. The speaker also seeks out the ability to be at peace in “His will” among the rocks.
In the final lines, he asks to never be parted from “Sister, mother / And spirit of the river.” His cry, he hopes, will “come unto Thee” and allow his soul to be revived. He is coming reconciled to his humanity, and the strife it caused him at the beginning of the poem is no longer present.
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