Stanza 1: Lines 1-12

The speaker is unusually affected by the moon. This is no traditional romantic moon shedding a beneficent light. This moon dissolves the normal thinking process in “a lunar synthesis” (Line 3). Synthesis means a bringing together of disparate elements to constitute a whole. The words “lunacy” and “lunatic” are derived from the word “luna” (the Latin word for the moon). There is a long-standing belief that different phases of the moon, especially a full moon, can create a temporary state of insanity. This lunar synthesis is therefore likely to be of a rather unusual nature.

Eliot examines External and Internal Time. He sets up a contrast between mechanistic clock time and the inner processes of memory and its associations. The “lunar incantations” (Line 4) constitute a kind of spell: They “[d]issolve the floors of memory / And all its clear relations, / Its divisions and precisions” (Lines 5-7). Metaphorically, this means there is nothing left to stand on, no firm footing from which a person can understand life—all the usual boundaries have melted away, along with the linear flow of events.

There is something predetermined about this process. The speaker cannot consciously will or control it.