The Journey of the Magi--T. S. Eliot

The Journey of the Magi--T. S. Eliot--Poetry

[Lecture notes and summary by Dr. S. Sreekumar]

Throughout his life, T. S. Eliot struggled with religion and belief.  Born and brought up in a Unitarian¹ family, he was surrounded by a particular kind of religious ideology. When he joined Harvard, he began to get interested in Buddhism. But Eliot’s search did not end with Buddhism. His quest eventually led him to a full conversion to High Anglicanism² in 1927.

“The Journey of the Magi”, was written in 1927 after Eliot’s conversion to Anglicanism. Thus the poem forms a landmark in the spiritual journey of Eliot. In the poem, Eliot retells the story of the Magi who travelled to Palestine to visit the newborn Jesus according to the Gospel of Matthew. As per the Gospel, the Magi were the three wise men namely Balthazar— King of Chaldea, Gaspor—King of Ethopia, and Melchoir—King of Nubia. They came to Bethlehem to pay homage to infant Christ presenting him with gifts of gold, myrrh, and frankincense. The poem is a narrative told from the point of view of one of the Magi. It expresses the theme of alienation and a feeling of helplessness in a world that has changed.

'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.'

The first five lines are taken from the Nativity Sermon given by Lancelot Andrews³ in 1622. A cold coming they had of it at this time of the year, just the worst time of the year to take a journey, and specially a long journey. The ways deep, the weather sharp, the days short, the sun farthest off, “the very dead of winter."

And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory, [Galled= rude behaviour,  refractory= difficult to control ]                                                                                                                                                                                           

 Lying down in the melting snow.                                                                               

There were times we regretted                                                                                                   

The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,                                                                

And the silken girls bringing sherbet. (anachronism--at the time of Christ there was no sherbet)

The magus is narrating the difficulties in the journey. The camels were rude, sore-footed and difficult to control. They often lied down in the snow and refused to get up. Those were the times they regretted the journey. They thought about the comforts of their palaces during such occasions.

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.

Eliot is removing all Romantic notions about the journey of the Magi. What he gives here seems to be the realistic picture of the times. The camel men were also difficult to control. They cursed and grumbled and ran away. They wanted their liquor and women. The night fires went out and there were no shelters for them. The cities were inimical and the towns were unfriendly. The villages were dirty and charged high prices. The magi had a very hard journey.

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.       

The Magi ‘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 poem now becomes symbolic rather than realistic.    

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.

Low sky= not very high. Temperate= moderate The arrival of the Magi at the place of Nativity, whose symbolism has been anticipated by the fresh vegetation and the mill "beating the darkness," is only a "satisfactory" experience. 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’ and a water mill beating the darkness. The stream and the water-mill stand for a promising future. Water-mill beating the darkness stands for the driving away of superstitions. Three trees stand for the three crosses on the Calvary. White horse represents the second coming of Christ as victor.

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 arriving at evening, not a moment too soon                                                              

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

Pieces of silver stands for Judas betraying Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Hands dicing may stand for Judas dicing or for the Romans dicing for the dress of Christ after he was crucified. The entire stanza is filled with biblical imagery regarding the story of Christ and His death and resurrection, such as "three trees on the low sky," and "Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver".

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.

The narrator has seen and yet he does not fully understand; he accepts the fact of Birth but is perplexed by its similarity to a Death, and to death which he has seen before. Were they led there for Birth or for Death? Or, perhaps, for neither? Or to make a choice between Birth and Death? And whose Birth or Death was it? Their own, or Another's? The tone is one of utter confusion. Any change is painful and the Magi knew that they could no longer live in the world they lived till then. Hence the new birth was like a death for them. Similarly in the birth of Jesus also there is death as it is pre-ordained. Jesus was born to redeem the sins of humanity.

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.

Uncertainty leaves him mystified and unaroused to the full splendour of the strange epiphany. So he and his fellows have come back to their own Kingdoms, where, they lived among their people who believed still in their old religion. The poem ends with a note of resignation. The Magi are witness to a divine drama enacted by the Almighty. They knew that the world will be no more the same after the Birth. But they are unable to comprehend the changes that has taken place in their humdrum lives. Death would be more welcome than the uncertainty that surrounds them.

The birth of the Christ was the death of the world of magic, astrology, and paganism. The speaker, recalling his journey in old age, says that after that birth his world had died, and he had little left to do but wait for his own end. The last line, \"I should be glad of another death\" can have different meanings. One interpretation could be that Eliot is referring to Jesus\' death, aside from his own, or another rebirth (when someone converts to Christianity, they are \"reborn\"; the old man dies and the new man is born). Or it could refer to the death of religions when Jesus was born

In the last stanza the speaker stops telling the story of their journey and tells what they learned from it. He talks of the nature of birth and death and decides that though they left to see a birth, the birth of Christ, it was like a death to them because after that everything changed. The last lines state it best: "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". This poem is classic Eliot, and like his other works, it leaves you with the feeling that while something important has happened, something has also been lost. Journey of the Magi" is an allegory of the spiritual journey.  In renunciation, man cannot find happiness as the thought of sensual enjoyment is still there in his mind.

Notes

1. Unitarian: A Christian sect which believes that God is one entity and not three persons in one being. Christ is viewed as human rather than a deity. Unitarians also reject the notion of original sin. S.T. Coleridge was a famous Unitarian.

2. High Anglicanism:  the doctrine and practice of the Church of England and other Anglican Churches. They base their Christian faith on the Bible, traditions of the apostolic Church, apostolic succession.

3.   Lancelot Andrewes—(1555 to 1626). He was a prominent Anglican bishop during the reign of Elizabeth I and James I.  He also oversaw the translation of the King James Bible. The first five lines are taken from his sermon on Christmas, 1622.