In 1943 Thomas Stearns Eliot published his volume of poetry entitled The Four Quartets German 1948 Die vier Quartette. The last of these is entitled Little Gidding*. The two stanzas of seven lines of verse each which Strawinsky set to music correspond to the second-last section and depict darkly as is typical of T. S. Eliot that humankind may only atone for its errors and be redeemed from fire by fire.