After months of not working on the poem , Eliot began to feel compelled to finish it ; it was not until August 1942 , however , that he started working on it again . In total , there were five drafts . The poem was finished by 19 September 1942 and published in the October New English Weekly . Little Gidding was intended to conclude the Four Quartets series , summarising Eliot 's views expressed in this series of poems .