ABSTRACT

T.S. Eliot opens ‘The Dry Salvages,’ the third of his Four Quartets with a speaker stating the belief that ‘the river/Is a strong brown god, sullen, untamed, intractable’ (1–2). This article begins with follow-up questions: where and who is the brown god and how do Eliot and his speakers situate themselves in the new geography of a breaking world? Through geographical consideration, biographical knowledge, historical context, and formal analysis, this essay posits the Mississippi River as Eliot’s stated brown god and considers the historical and philosophical implications of what it means for the paragon Anglo-American expatriate to return to the river of his youth in the final grand poetic effort of his literary career. Four Quartets goes back in time and space shifts across impossible geographies. In the poem, Eliot attempts and fails to understand African American life in white modernity at the same time he uses the Mississippi to exist within the Atlantic Ocean. He and his speakers spend their poetic time trying to become a universal poetic voice in a new modern existence and falling short.

摘要

TS艾略特（TS Eliot）在他的《四重奏》中的第三首中打开了“干捞”，发言人指出，“河流是坚强的棕色神，沉闷，驯服，顽强”（1-2）。本文从后续问题开始：棕色的神在哪里，谁是谁，艾略特和他的演讲者如何将自己置于破碎世界的新地理环境中？通过地理考虑，传记知识，历史背景和形式分析，本文将密西西比河假定为艾略特所说的棕色神，并考虑对英美侨民返回他的河意味着什么的历史和哲学含义。青年时期，是他在文学事业中的最后一场伟大的诗歌创作。四重奏穿越时空，穿越不可能的地域。在这首诗中，艾略特（Eliot）尝试并且未能理解白人现代性中的非洲裔美国人生活，同时他利用密西西比州（Mississippi）存在于大西洋中。他和他的演讲者度过了诗意的时光，试图在新的现代存在中成为普遍的诗意之声，并未能兑现。