3 Ways Beethoven’s Op. 132 Influenced T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets

Eliot directly credited Beethoven’s Op. 132 as an impetus for his Four Quartets. He called the quartet “quite inexhaustible to study,” indicating its deep impact on his creative process.

The quartet’s structure inspired Eliot’s use of musical form in poetry. Eliot modeled the Four Quartets after the five-movement structure of Beethoven’s late quartets, with each poem mirroring a movement’s emotional and thematic arc.

Op. 132’s slow movement, the “Heiliger Dankgesang,” influenced Eliot’s treatment of time and transcendence. Eliot admired how Beethoven wove a hymn of gratitude into the quartet, reflecting a similar blend of spiritual reflection and temporal experience in his own work.