Four Quartets Man and the Natural World Quotes

The river at the opening of "The Dry Salvages" is a force that humans can never fully conquer. It'll always have the power to suddenly flood and destroy the flimsy buildings that humanity puts around it. In this case, it's a reminder of what humans choose to forget, which is the fact that we're never going to totally conquer nature.

Our soul is like sap, basically, and we're like a tree. If our sap gets frozen and rigid, we think only about ourselves and strive constantly to prove ourselves as individuals. If our soul melts, then we totally lose track of who we are as individuals and just melt into our surroundings. Somewhere between these two extremes, though, you reach a place where your soul is both your own and not your own, a place where you can be comfortable with who you are, but also deeply connected to the surrounding world.