Divine Theology Poem by gershon hepner

Disorder, meaningless, insane futility,
the mystery of why we suffer,
are feelings that we try to buffer
by showing philosophical humility,
while God takes pride in his divine theology
that none of us can understand,
confused so much we don’t demand
excuses, explanations or apology.

Lyndall Gordon, in 'T.S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life' (W. W. Norton) writes that the 'impersonal' facade of T.S. Eliot's poetry 'the multiple faces and voices, masks an often quite literal reworking of personal experience' (Richard Bernstein, 'Portrait of a Visionary In a Heap of Broken Images, ' NYT, August 18,1999) . She adds:

The sudden poetic eruption of 'the stern voice of denial' -she is writing here specifically of the 'Four Quartets' - is Eliot's hatred of humanity speaking, his powerful sense of 'the disorder, the futility, the meaningless, the mystery of life and suffering.' His goal was to transcend that corruption and the dross of quotidian relationships by the creation of timeless art.

8/18/99