(8) Snow Line
So how tough is "Four Quartets"? Well it depends on what you're trying to get from it. One thing that can really make this poem difficult to read is if you come at it hoping to "master" or totally understand it logically. This is actually something that Eliot is actively trying to keep you from doing. He wants you to read about things that are totally self-contradictory, and many of the images in this poem won't really make sense from a logical viewpoint.
For example, starting on line 64 you get the following: "Neither flesh nor fleshless; / Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, / But neither rest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, / Where past and future are gathered" (64-67). If you have a hard time following the speaker's repetitive, sometimes circular thinking, don't worry. It's actually designed to tie your brain in knots. Feel better?
We know. At first glance, it might also look as if "Four Quartets" is way more accessible than something like Eliot's "The Waste Land," but at least the speaker included some endnotes with "The Waste Land." There are a ton of buried references in "Four Quartets," too, but you don't have the benefit of any endnotes (depending on your edition). On the bright side, you can still get the gist of what the speaker's saying in these poems without totally understanding every allusion he throws your way.
But maybe the most difficult thing about this poem is the way its repetitiveness starts to hypnotize you after a while. It can be very, very difficult to read this poem straight through and to concentrate on every line equally. This is because, well a) it's long, and b) it's really tough to tell when the speaker is totally repeating an earlier point in different words or actually adding some new detail. If you've got a modern brain that searches for key information when it's reading, then Eliot has you right where he wants you. He wants you to give in to the poem. He wants you to go ahead and let the thing hypnotize you.