An absence of the longed for

"I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without
love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be light, and the stillness the
dancing."



While there are many passages from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets that I am in love with, this one in particular is simply pure ecstasy. Just to throw it out there, ecstasy to me is a feeling in which you feel chills from the awe- a sort of shock in which every sense is heightened...this is ecstasy.
This passage is so deeply emotional, completely attached yet somehow detached. This passage comes to me as a warning, as if Eliot felt so passionately for something that he felt he could not attain, therefore felt the need to detach from it. Perhaps I am simply putting my own thoughts, feelings and experiences into this passage but that is half the fun is it not? The waiting makes me feel as if he is hoping...isn't that what you do when you wait? So, how can he be without hope? By instilling a sort of emptiness, thoughts become absent, darkness becomes light, and stillness the dancing.