First Published in 1935 it is the first poem in the four related poems by T.S. Eliot, which were published individually from 1935 to 1942. The other three are: East Coker (1940), The Dry Salvages (1941) and Little Gidding (1942). Together known as 'The Four Quartets' , these were collected and republished in book form in 1943.
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable,
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose garden.
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