4: The Associations of War
When T.S. Eliot was writing
The Dry Salvages, the question of American assistance for Britain's war effort was being debated.
The poet Peter Robinson traces Eliot's attempt to protect his poem from topical allusion while bringing about the 'intersection of the timeless with time'.
I do not know much about Gods; but I think that the river
Is a strong brown god - sullen, untamed and intractable,
Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier;
Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyer of commerce;
Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges.
Complete readings of The Dry
Salvages precede and follow the talk, given by Alec Guinness and John Franklyh-Robbins respectively.
(Fifth programme on Wednesday 9.10pm)