Objective: All of the Four Quartets are highly abstract, metaphysical poems that consider dense questions very deeply: in "Burnt Norton," the central theme is time, which is presented or approached through various aspects and means. In the first part, a prominent consideration is on that of the past and therefore unreachable possibilities every individual encounters and recalls. Examining this relationship between time past and possibility is the objective of this lesson.
1) Class Discussion: What is the past? How is the past distinct from the present and from the future? At what point does the present turn into the past? What is the relationship between possibility and time? In particular, what characterizes the relationship between the past and possibility? How is possibility within the past to be characterized? In what sense do particular possibilities exist in the past? How does the speaker view the possibilities of the past...
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