단테는 엘리엇 전 생애를 통하여 문학과 신앙에서 고갈되지 않는 자원이었다. 단테는 『신곡』의 주제를 출이집트 사건으로 보고, 순례자 단 테가 지옥과 연옥을 거쳐 천국에 오르는 구원의 여정을 펼쳐 보여 주었 다. 이 글 전반부에서 엘리엇의 대표적인 세 편의 시들을 단테의 구조에 넣고 비평하고자 한다. 즉 『황무지』- 지옥편 , 『재의 수요일』- 연옥 편 , 『네 사중주』- 천국편의 연결이다. 그러나 엘리엇이 각각의 시를 쓸 때, 단테의 구도를 의도하지는 않았을 것이다. 엘리엇 시 전체의 역 사를 되돌아볼 때, 그러한 자리매김이 가능한 것이라고 생각된다. 이 글 의 후반부에서는 단테의 초기 소품 『새로운 인생』과 대작 『신곡』에서 엘리엇이 어떤 자원을 캐내어 자신의 시론이나 기법을 확립하는데 도움을 받았는지 알아보고자 한다. 마지막으로 천국편 33편에서 단테가 기독교 교리(삼위일체, 성육신)를 어떻게 시적으로 표현하였나 살펴 보 고, 엘리엇 시에서 중요한 주제 장미정원의 비전이 성육신의 교리와 어떻게 관련되어 있음을 논할 것이다.

This thesis intends to explicate T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets with 배e image of the rose-garden as an important c1ue to it. The mystical experience of rose-garden is the starting point of “Bumt Norton", the first poem of Four Quartets. ln “Bumt Norton", this ecstatic moment of illumination can be said to save the poet from the flux of time, even momentarily. At tbis time Eliot applies the Dantean concept of “tbe still poinl of tuming world" to tbe rose-garden experience. This image of rose-garden repeats ilself in the rest of the poem. However, the meaning of visionary experience is criticized within the work itself. In the concluding section of “Easl Coker", tbe poet altempts 10 revise his altiludes to those mystical experiences. He wishes to put more value on the enlarged consciousness covering the collective community rather than the isolated ecstatic moment of one solitary mystic. ln “The Dry Salvages" he is concemed with giving poetic form to tbeological tbougbts sucb as Annunciation and lncamation. The poet accepts historic lncamation, namely the birtb and life of Jesus Cbrist on earth, as the intersection point of the limeless with time. However, when he poeticizes the Chrislian doctrine, he just takes the method of connecting lncamation with the small experiences of iIIumÎ.nation. Now we can realize the rose-garden experience of “Bumt Norton" as “The hint half guessed" or "the gift balf understood" of Incamation, as it were, a sbadow of lncamation. Finally, at the end of “Little Gidding" the poet reaches the rose-garden once more. At tbis time tbis last rose-garden could be thought to be a more expanded one than that of “Bumt Norton", for we know well tbat it only could be reacbed after various spiritual, p이itical， and historical disciplines.

T. S. Eliot has woven into the fabric of Four Quartets themes and symbols from a variety of Christian and non-Christian mystical sources. One of the powerful mystical elements is derived from the 16th century Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross, whose spiritual exercises stand for the Negative Way. In the Western theology, there are two distinctive ways in which Christian saints or poets can perceive the Divine Reality. They are the Affirmative Way and the Negative Way. The Affirmative Way is the same idea with the doctrine or poetry of immanence, and the Negative Way with the doctrine or poetry of transcendence. T. S. Eliot's poetry is influenced by the tradition of the Negative Way or the poetry of transcendence. This thesis intends to study what characteristics the Affirmative Way or the Negative Way respectively has, and what is the theory of St. John's dark night of the soul. Also it wishes to trace which elements Eliot took from St. John and which elements he refused to take. Finally, in his masterpiece Four Quartets, this study will observe how St. John's negative theology is crystallized into the inner structure of the poem. Also this thesis wishes to reveal in what sense Eliot's poetry can be named the poetry of transcendence. Hopkins perceives the unity of nature, a poet and God, therefore he depicts the nature like "The world is charged with the grandeur of God." But Eliot is not eager to perceive the immanent presence of God in the power and beauty of nature. Instead, the poet is evoked with partial ecstasy and partial dread and goes through purgation process and afterwards reaches self-oblivion or union with God. In Eliot's idiom, he wishes to "go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy." In "Burnt Norton" III and "East Coker" III Eliot gives powerful expression to St. John's Negative Way. In these parts Eliot tries to apply St. John's theory, which was, originally, individual way of spiritual exercises, to diagnosing the collective spiritual darkness of modern London. Eliot seems to declare such a modern society must pass through the painful self-negation and complete deprivation, as shown in St. John's Negative Way. According to John X. Cooper, such idea of Eliot's is possibly true, because if the individual purification cannot bring us back from the abyss, the mere social world can hold absolutely no hope. We can hear Eliot's prophetic voice saying that after descending to the bottom and confronting the absolute solitude and abyss, the soul can arise from the dark night of purgation towards the world of light. Four Quartets, however, remains first and foremost a poem not a poetic version of mystical theology. Although Eliot alludes to and even paraphrases St. John's dark night of the soul, St. John's negative theology can be only one of the powerful threads in Eliot's poetical fabric.

T. S. Eliot was deeply influenced by Dante, so the presence of Dante permeated many of Eliot’s works. This thesis intends to examine what Eliot learned from Dante and how Eliot used Dante in his own poetry afterwards. Eliot's articles or lectures such as “Dante” (1920), Clark Lectures(1926), Dante(1929) and “What Dante Means to Me”(1950), in which Eliot himself discussed Dante's influence, will be referred to. From his early poetry, Eliot cites and alludes to Dante, but uses Dante in the negative or ironical ways. Only after the conversion to Anglican Church does Eliot spiritually have the same tone as Dante, but still does not use him in the same context. This thesis takes note of this point and intends to reveal how Eliot wrote his poems while utilizing Dante. First, as Dantean poems we will read two Ariel Poems such as “Animula” and “A Song for Simeon”. Next, the heavily Dantean poem, Ash-Wednesday will be discussed with relation to The Divine Comedy and Vita Nuova. In Ash-Wednesday Eliot attempted to applicate the philosophy of Vita Nuova (New Life) to his time. Eliot thought Dante struggled to enlarge the boundary of human love toward the divine love. Dante’s Beatrice serves as a means of transition between such two loves. Such Beatrice-like figure is evident in Ash-Wednesday. Finally, Four Quartets is connected with The Divine Comedy. In both poems, the subject is the journey for spiritual freedom or the exploration of human consciousness. In Dante, the pilgrim’s journey is carried on through the Inferno and Purgatorio and finally towards the Paradiso, that is, the vision world beyond the here and now. Similarly, Eliot’s explorer wishes to go beyond the frontiers of ordinary consciousness. In Four Quartets the vision of heaven and hell alluding to Dante can be seen in many places. And the most vivid Dantean Infernal landscape appears in “Little Gidding” II, from the meeting scene of the ‘compound ghost’. Even though Eliot declared his imitation of Dante on this point, various meanings can be extracted, making his works a rather powerful creation than so-called imitation. To the end of the poem, Dante’s imagery of rose and fire is clearly apparent, but this is also depicted for Eliot’s own purposes. This thesis concludes that while quoting, alluding to, and utilizing Dante, Eliot could create his own unique poems.