T.S. Eliot: We shall not cease from exploration

Image via Wikipedia

We shall not cease from exploration 

And the end of all our exploring 

Will be to arrive where we started 

And know the place for the first time. 

Through the unknown, remembered gate 

When the last of earth left to discover 

Is that which was the beginning; 

At the source of the longest river 

The voice of the hidden waterfall 

And the children in the apple-tree 

Not known, because not looked for 

But heard, half-heard, in the stillness 

Between two waves of the sea. 

Quick now, here, now, always - 

 A condition of complete simplicity 

(Costing not less than everything) 

All shall be well and 

All manner of things shall be well 

 When the tongues of flame are in-folded 

 Into the crowned not of fire 

 And the fire and the rose are one.

-- T.S. Eliot from Little Gidding in T.S. Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays