“A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year

For a journey, and such a long journey:

The ways deep and the weather sharp,

The very dead of winter.”

And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,

Lying down in the melting snow.

There were times we regretted

The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and grumbling

And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,

And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,

And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

And the villages dirty and charging high prices:

A hard time we had of it.

At the end we preferred to travel all night,

Sleeping in snatches,

With the voices singing in our ears, saying

That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,

Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;

With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,

And three trees on the low sky,

And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.

Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,

Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,

And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.

But there was no information, and so we continued

And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon

Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again, but set down

This set down

This: were we led all that way for

Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,

We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,

But had thought they were different; this Birth was

Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.

Journey of the Magi by T. S. Eliot: Summary and Critical Analysis

The poem Journey of the Magi is based on the theme of the Bible. It is full of religious feelings. The visit of the Three Wise Men from the East to Palestine at the time of Christ’s birth has been described in a very realistic way. The wise men start their journey in the extreme cold of the winter to reach the place of Christ’s birth to offer presents to him.

The ‘Journey of the Magi’ was penned down by Nobel prize winner, TS Eliot, and is a contrast of experiences based on the nativity of Christ. The monologue describes the journey of the Magi to Bethlehem in search of spiritual pacification and is an account of Eliot’s own conversion to Anglican faith, making the journey and objective correlation for Eliot.

As per the Gospel story, the Magi were the three wise men namely Balthazar- King of Chaldea, Gaspor – King of Ethopia, Melchoir -King of Nubia who belonged to the priestly class of magicians and had come to Bethlahem to pay homage to infant Christ presenting him with gifts of gold, myrrh, and frankincense. They symbolise wandering human souls in search of spirituality, the eternal spiritual quester.
The poem, ‘Journey of the Magi’, opens with the nativity sermon of Lancelot Andrews preached in 1622 which describes the hardships Magi faced due to deep ways, sharp weather, meeting snow and hostile conditions which were hard to combat : ‘ A cold coming we had of it/ Just the worst time of the year’ in ‘the very dead of winter’. The Magus admits that there was introspection promoted for ‘there were times we regretted’ as they had given up materialistic pleasures and sensuality of ‘Summer places on the slope’ and ‘silken girls bringing sherbet.’

Besides wondering whether it was worth the effort, their major issue of search was ignored and the day to day difficulties bogged them down with ‘camelmen cursing and grumbling’, ‘night fires going out’ and ‘villages, dirty and charging high prices’. And they admitted, ‘A hard time we had of it’.

The Magi now ‘preferred to travel all night’ and faced agonising moments of self doubt : ‘voices singing in our ears saying that this was all folly’ before they finally reached a temperate valley.

The second half of the poem abounds in symbolism with the temperate valley signifying the change in their lives that followed the arduous journey. They come across a ‘ running stream’ depicting the timelessness of their journey; ‘watermill beating the darkness,’ continuing the image of extinction and renewal; ‘three trees signifying three crosses at Calvary; ‘an old white horse’, a metaphor for rebirth of Christ, the Savior and the defeat of paganism; ‘Vine leaves over the lintel’ again symbolic of the vine that Christ metamorphosed into his blood; ‘Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver’ refers to betrayal of Christ by Judas and lastly ‘feet kicking empty vine skins ’is symbolic of the worn out forms and rituals of the old dispensation.
The Magus describes their destination as: ‘Finding the place, it was ( you may say) satisfactory’. Such a deliberate understatement reflects the turmoil in the minds of the Magi as an outcome of the clash of their old dispensation and new beliefs.

The last twelve lines describe the psychological change in the Magi as they are caught in confusion and perplexity and claimed that ‘This birth was hard and bitter agony for us like Death’. The journey marked the end of their old dispensation but does not give them satisfaction of faith for the Magus claims, ‘I should be glad of another death’ so that he may be born into a new faith.

The poem can be studied at three levels: The actual journey of the Magi; Eliot’s journey from doubt to faith while his conversion to Anglicanism, and journey of any individual in spiritual quest.

Belonging to the Ariel poems, the journey traces Eliot’s own spiritual quest and his yearning for sublime peace.
The monologue reconfirms the universal truth that the brave and the dauntless who embark upon journeys with conviction are graced with divinity but it is sensual desire and temptation that need to be overcome.

THEMES AND POETIC DEVICES IN THE POEM

SUFFERING

 The “Journey of the Magi” begins and ends with suffering, and the Magi suffer a whole lot during the journey, the bad weather and even worse people. The psychological suffering of the dying culture of the Magi, in addition to the physical and mental anguish we know about Jesus would experience as he grew up to become Christ. So what do we make of all this? We think Eliot’s reminding us that a whole lot about spirituality and religion

TRADITION AND CUSTOMS

The “Journey of the Magi” is chock full of traditions being challenged left and right. There’s this strange sense of impending doom about the birth of Jesus, and the dawning knowledge that the old way of life for these Magi is long gone. You would think that a poem about the birth of Jesus would be all kinds of happiness, about ushering in a new era of religious exaltation, but mostly, this poem is talking about the past.

DEATH

To the Magi, the loss of their traditions to impending Christianity is like staring both death and defeat in the face at once. Death doesn’t make its real entrance until the end of “Journey of the Magi.” The death of Jesus on the cross brings transformation and redemption. 

RELIGION

The birth of Jesus, the three kings, the death of Jesus “Journey of the Magi” are religious themes.  Since the whole poem is about the coming of Christianity, every word is packed with religious meaning  in the poem.

POETIC DEVICES

Eliot uses anaphora, or starting the lines with the same word. This provides a rhythmic effect, as well as the sense of reciting a litany. One finds this in the repeated use of the word “And” to begin lines, for example: 

And the camel . . .

And running away . . .

And the night fires . . .

Anaphora is used too in the final stanza, though in a more muted way, in the repetition of the words “but” and “this.”

However—and this is where it gets interesting—Eliot, the master of allusion, uses the anaphora technique allusively. Allusion is the literary device in which a poet refers to another work of literature in his own text. In this Biblically-themed poem, about the birth of Christ, the anaphora echoes the Bible, especially the Psalms, which are noted for their use of anaphora. Eliot also uses allusions to the Bible when he mentions, among other things, wineskins and three trees (referring to Jesus being one of the three men hung together on crosses).

Eliot uses alliteration to build a rhythmic effect. Alliteration means beginning words with the same consonant within a line. Eliot does this in such lines as 

The summer palaces on slopes . . .

The camel men cursing . . .

Vivid imagery helps bring the poem alive as well. Imagery is using the five senses to put the reader in a scene: Eliot writes in ways that allow us to see glimpses of what the narrator telling the story sees, such as “silken girls bringing sherbet” and “villages dirty.”

The imagery in the first section depicts the harshness of the journey, the cold, the animals’ stubbornness, and their guides desertion.  The journey, in the second stanza, becomes more pleasant, seeing a “temperate valley,” and a tranquil stream, both symbols of peace and harmony.

While here, the readers are given the picture of men gambling at a tavern, which alludes to the gamblers Christ drove out of the temple in the Bible and infers the need of a savior.  The darkness has turned to light; they are in Bethlehem and find the infant.

However, years later, the magi reflect on this miraculous event.  Christ has already been crucified.  He was essentially born to die, making the magi wonder ” were we lead all that way for
Birth or Death?”  This question is universal?  All men are born; all men die.

“The Journey of the Magi” is a narrative poem that uses outsider point of view to illuminate the well-known story of the nativity. The Biblical narrative does not consider the feelings of the Magi towards the journey; Eliot’s poem foregrounds these and uses dramatic irony in that while the narrator does not understand the import of the allusions he makes—the “white horse,” the “pieces of silver,” the “vine skins”—we, the reader, understand these to be images related to Christ’s crucifixion.

The semantic field of suffering that begins in the first stanza, then—”a long journey,” “a hard time we had of it,” “the very dead of winter,” “sore-footed”—is extended and amplified towards the end of the poem, where Death comes to the fore. The narrator explains that “this birth was hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death,” and the dramatic irony again is that the reader understands that Christ’s purpose is not only incomplete without both his birth and death, but also that he symbolizes the death of “the old dispensation” of “alien people clutching their gods.” The Magi, then, have journeyed to see a birth that will lead to the death of their own civilization, leaving the narrator “no longer at ease” and longing for “another death.”

GENERAL EVALUATION/REVISION QUESTIONS

1. Comment on the theme of religion and suffering.
2. Examine the poetic techniques employed in the poem.

WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT

SECTION A

INSTRUCTION: Answer all questions.

1. “Here comes the princess, now heaven walls on earth”, illustrates the use of A. contrast. B. metaphor. C. metonymy. D. meiosis.
2. An ode is usually a poem written for A. condemnation. B. celebration. C. instruction. D. entertainment.
3. The main character in a literary work is the A. antagonist. B. protagonist. C. narrator. D actor.
4. A sonnet may be divided into an octave and A.  tercet. B. quatrain. C. sestet. D. septet.
5. “All hands on deck” is an example of A. metaphor. B. personification. C. synecdoche. D. pun.

SECTION B

INSTRUCTION: Answer one question.

Give a brief biography of Wole Soyinka.

READING ASSIGNMENT

Read up The Lion and Jewel and give a plot account of the book.  

EVALUATIONS QUESTIONS

1. Critically analyze content of the poem above.
   1. How does the poem relate to the Bible?

WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT

SECTION A

INSTRUCTION: Answer all questions

1.         “Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind”, illustrates

            A. inversion        B. paradox       C. humour        D. mood E. metaphor

2.         When characters talk to each other, it is referred to as ………..

            A. soliloquy         B. monologue           C. dialogue      D. recitation      E. talking

3.         The attitude of a writer towards the subject matter is the ………

            A. tone B. plot  C. crisis D. climax E. theme

4.         The story of a person’s life written by another is …… A.   history       B. autobiography

C. biography D. anthology E. compilation

5.         A writer’s diction portrays his ………A. repetition B. irony C. tension D. humour                     E. style

SECTION B

Discuss the dominant theme in the poem.

READING ASSIGNMENT

Read up the poetic devices in the above poem in Exam Focus.