Wednesday, April 30, 2008

What we call the beginning is often the end

"What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. And every phrase
And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,
Taking its place to support the others,
The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic,
The complete consort dancing together)
Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph."

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."


-Thomas Stearns Eliot