“Because I Do not Hope to Turn”: Anglo-Catholic Doctrines in Eliot’s Ash-Wednesday

Abstract

This essay aims to examine the centrality of the Anglo-Catholic doctrines in Eliot’s poem, Ash-Wednesday, as a part of the Anglo-faith which Eliot embraced as his way of life. The poem, as Ronald Schuchard notes in his book, Eliot’s Dark Angel: Intersections of Life and Art, could also be seen as a poem of Eliot’s journey towards penance. The poetic persona offers a prayer to a Lady of Silences—a venerated figure similar to Mary—before he begins his journey. In this way, the title itself has the Anglo-Catholic significance in that Ash Wednesday refers to a period in which people undergo their penance and wait for the Easter. Thus, Anglo-Catholic element plays a crucial role in the poetic narrative. In this way, Ash-Wednesday can be read as an Anglo-Catholic poem in a way different from other poems such as “Journey of the Magi” and Four Quartets, in which Anglo-Catholic or Christian theme appear only occasionally, often, indirectly.