A Source for T.S. Eliot's Use of 'Elsewhere' in East Coker'

Author/Editor
Roberts, F. X.

Title
A Source for T.S. Eliot's Use of 'Elsewhere' in East Coker'

Published
Roberts, F. X.. "A Source for T.S. Eliot's Use of 'Elsewhere' in East Coker'." ANQ: American Notes and Queries 6 (1993), pp. 24-25.

Review
According to Roberts, Eliot's lines near the end of Movement I of the "East Coker" section of the Four Quartets, "I am here / or there or elsewhere," may echo CA Prol. 9, "Whan we ben dede and elleswhere;" if so, the allusion to Gower's passage helps clarify Eliot's use of "elsewhere" as a reference to a state beyond death. Roberts admits, though, that there is no way to certain that the evocation of Gower was deliberate. Indeed. He might have added that Eliot might not have needed Gower to suggest such a use for "elsewhere," and that without certainty that that was what Eliot really meant, there is really no evidence that Eliot had Gower in mind at all. [PN. Copyright The John Gower Society. JGN 13.1]

Date
1993

Gower Subjects
Influence and Later Allusion