“Journey of the Magi” by T.S. Eliot is interesting because it tells the story of the wisemen going to visit the new baby Jesus in a different light than most are used to hearing it. The story comes from the view of one of the wisemen and talks about many of the difficulties and doubts they face along the journey.
Along the way, their journey is “in the worst time of year” and in the “dead of winter.” The camels are “sore-footed” and “galled.” The journey that the wiseman is talking about doesn’t seem to be very pleasant at all. Next, the wiseman seems to be remembering the days before their journey.
“There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.” (ln 8-10)
The journey seems so rough now and he can’t even really see what the real purpose of his journey is. He is tempted by his thoughts to turn back and continue with his life before. He then describes more difficulties that they face along the way causing him to question the reason for this journey. They face fires going out, lack of shelters, hostile cities, unfriendly people, and dirty and overpriced villages. None of it really seems worth it at the time. At the end of the night each night, voices would sing in their ears, “This was all folly.” This stanza portrays the negative tone of the wiseman and how difficult the journey must have been. Each night voices would tell them that all of it was a waste of time. Even through all of this discouragement, they still continued on because something in the back of their heads told them that it was right.
In the next stanza, they have arrived in Bethlehem presumably. They arrived in the “temperate valley, wet below the snow line, smelling of vegetation.” The arrival of warmer weather represents new life and a brighter future from then on. At the end of the stanza, he describes his arrival as “not as moment too soon” and the place as “satisfactory.” This seems to be in a sarcastic tone because the place he probably found the newborn Jesus was not satisfactory in his taste. Once he has finally arrived, he makes the point that he does not regret the journey at all. Once he has seen the birth of Jesus, he knows that it was all worth it. He makes an interesting statement on line 35.
“This: were we led all that way for
Birth of Death? There was Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought thy were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.” (ln 35-39)
This can be confusing because here Eliot feels Death as he sees Jesus being born, but most would think he should feel life. He probably feels death because with the birth of Jesus, he has thrown out all of his old beliefs and he is no longer the person he once was. The old him has died and he must leave all of that behind. He feels this inside of him. When the wisemen return home, the wiseman describes that he is no longer at ease.
“But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.” (ln 41-43)
He is no longer satisfied with his old life and would rather experience death than go back to his old life.
2 comments:
Andrew,
Good observations on Eliot's poem. For a Christmas poem there are a lot of Easter images (the three trees on the horizon, the silver, the dice game); even more interesting to me is the complete lack of comment on the baby Jesus in the manger--after the big buildup of the trip, "it was, you may say, satisfactory." (Note that the Magus doesn't say it was satisfactory himself.)
Andrew,
I was wondering your opinion on the ending of the story. There is all this buildup to this end and it ends with a whimper. I was a little disappointed but enjoyed the different perspective of this story.
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