‘A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a 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 in
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 imformation, 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.
Has anyone read this poem in reverse order, starting with the last line and proceeding back to the first? It seems to flow together just as easily backwards as forwards. I thought this was definitely a unique way to write a poem, and it shows another element to the “journey” Eliot describes.
this poem could be analysed as the endurance of christains give them success atlast.
Why would they put Albania on the list, they don’t have Sierra Leone, stop complaining.
i find the poem so illustrative of the pains an hardship the magi faced.it quite touch me that all those where 4 a baby.
It is one of my favourites. I even have a personal way of experiencing it: to me, it is about our sharp moments of growth, about our learning new things and new facts and the way they “disturb” our peace. They may be bad, they may be good, or they may be just disturbing, and it takes a long time for us to adapt to the new world this specific truth brought us to, that sometimes we fear its existence.
P.s. I was a bit insulted by the “Choose your Country” not including Albania. There are people reading Eliot in this side of the world too.
its a poemin which eliot dramatises the journey to purgation .the magi is wristling his old despensation through his runing up against the temptations of life this life is full of material obstacles.of course the salvation is realised through life in death
this interesting poem by t.s eliot is i think a well painted image on the reality and inner void within which the modern soul is imbeded.
this poem is showing the journey that all must go through to reach Jesus and heaven. Eliot was giving us his look on the journey; he was showing how important the journey is, how important salvation is.
it’s hard to understand with my own cultural banckground.
i think in this poem we have a disciption of physical journey.kings looking for a lost religion,and the things they had to go through to witness that miraculus birth
the poem teaches us how we leave our lifes.it views the christian life from realisation to rebirth.for in dying we ae born again.
Eliot’s theme for The Journey of the Maji is the difficulty of accepting change even with presented proof, convincing evidence. People can be unwilling to mend old ways and the difficulty to change “old dispensation” (the definition for dispensation is, in loose terms, arrangement)
Eliot uses allusions to the bible, primarily in stanza three as well as metaphor and repetition to get his “point” across to the reader.
Beginning in stanza one we are presented with and image of three wise men off on a journey to find the child Christ. Their journey starts in the “dead of winter.”, the first five lines are a direct quote from asermon by bishop Andrewes, Eliot’s Anglican influence.
As this journey to find the child continues, first the camels suffer exhaustion, reluctant to continue their voyage. “Galled, sore-footed, refractory…”
The Maji or “Wise Men” begin to remember the “old days” before their quest, once high princes the maji enjoyed the luxury of “summer palaces on slopes, the terraces, and the silken girls bringing sherbet.” And they begin to question why they would continue on this so difficult journey when they could turn around back to their “old dispensation”… their material possessions and old spiritualality. “Then the camel men cursing and grumbling And running away, and wanting their liquor and women…”
The maji explains the hurdles in the journey, including doused lamps “Night-fires going out” These hurdles are mostly made by man and his inability to accept other men’s differences. They are turned away from shelter and the villages are “dirty”.
We are led to believe that this poem is not solely about the Maji’s journey but about a journey of any person going through spiritual change. These “dirty” villages can be considered people who are not converted christians.
The maji, instead of allowing themselves to wallow in the dirtiness of the cities “prefer” to continue on, traveling all night… the whole time their minds “singing in our ears, saying That this was all folly,” they question the journey and that perhaps this journey to find this child Christ is futile.
The second stanza holds the majority of all the allusions in the poem. These are for the most part biblical allusions and all relate to Christ and his crucifiction. A few of the illusions come from Eliot’s other works.
The first stanza shows that the “dead winter” is beginning to thaw into a “temperate valley,” the water-mill beating the darkness directly refers to Eliot’s other work where six male workers have their own journey. (research Eliot’s other poetry for more information) Three trees on the low sky is a direct reference to Jesus’s crucifiction, The actual cross, Jesus and the two criminals on either side of him. The “old white horse” is thought to be linked to Rev. 19:11-13 but the debate exists that it could be referenced to Zech 4:6 or revelations 6:2.
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I think this poem is great because, like ulysees, it gives the reader an insight into another persons fictional character.It describes the birth of christ as rather a negative thing.
in the poem pagan kings whitness christ’s birth and they realized how wrong they lived their lives.their first death was that.and the second death they would prefer is literally being dead,since they feel lost
I think this poem does have religious tones to it, but that’s obvious. Eliot was more about things under the surface. I think this poem speaks more about the journey of life to death, and the various stages in between.
I think the Magi see but don’t understand foreshadowing of Christ’s death on their journey to the birth. At the end, ” I should be glad of another death” now means he believes in the enternal life.
I think that the Magi saw a vision of Christ’s death, while being spiritually reborn. He returned to a place where he witnessed people worshiping false gods, and was so saddened by what he saw, that he would rather die physically then be sujected to such idolitry. I believe the first death was his own spirtual death.
The horse image is refering to the white horse of the conquering Christ in (Revelation 19:11-16)
the poem has the form of a dramatic monologue and has a circular movement, starting in winter (Christmas’ time) and finishing at the Epiphany. However, there is a stop during the journey and that’s in spring so that the Magi can see the Crucified Christ (three trees). Birth and Death mingle, Death announces a new birth. The Magus would wish for another Death. Whose death? Christ’s? and a new salvation?
What puzzles me is the windmill and the horse images . What objective correlatives are they of? Can anyone help me?
I thought that it was very well written, with great expression shown through his writtings. I greatly enjoyed how the writter, put his throughs into this such broad stroy, and still kept it going.