The opening sentence, “In my beginning is my end” (Line 1), is an inversion of the motto of Mary, Queen of Scots: En fa fin est mon commencement (“In my end is my beginning”). Eliot repeats the motto, without inverting it, in the last line of the poem. Mary (1542-87) was queen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567; she was later accused of plotting against Elizabeth I, queen of England, and was executed in 1587.

Each of the Four Quartets emphasizes one of the traditional four elements, and the opening section of “East Coker” emphasizes the element of earth. The theme is the transience of all things; everything eventually returns to the earth. Lines 9-13, which echo a famous passage in Ecclesiastes 3:1-4, state that there is a time for everything.

“In my beginning is my end” is repeated at the beginning of the second stanza of this section (Line 14). This time, the first part of the phrase has a literal meaning as well: Eliot is referring to the village of East Coker in Somerset, England, which was the home of his ancestor, Andrew Eliot. Andrew left the village in the late 17th century for colonial America, settling in Salem and then Beverly, Massachusetts.