‘The Journey of the magi’ By, T.S. Eliot Project by- Matthew Rhineberger

T.S. Eliot- Life, poetry, and death. Eliot was born Thomas Stearn Eliot on September 26, 1888 in St. Louis Missouri. He was born to an old New England family and was considered upper class. He was accepted and attended college at Harvard. For his post grad he studied philosophy at Sorbonne, Harvard. He then went on to study at Merton College, Oxford which proves to be his best decision in life as he stayed and became familiar with England. While there, he worked as a school master and a bank clerk.

T.S. Eliot- Life, poetry, and death. Contd. Later he worked as an editor and would eventually become the director of publishing house Faber and Faber. From 1922-1939 he edited the exclusive and influential literary journal Criterion. In 1927 he became a British citizen and formally entered the Anglican Church. He published many younger poets, and eventually became director of the firm. He married his first wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot in 1917. After a notoriously unhappy first marriage, Eliot separated from his first wife in 1933, and was remarried, to Valerie Fletcher, in 1956. Thomas died on January 4, 1965.

Awards and Honors Order of Merit (awarded by King George VI (1948) Nobel Prize in Literature"for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry" (1948) Officier de la Legion d'Honneur (1951) Hanseatic Goethe Prize (1955) Dante Medal (1959) Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1960) Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964) Thirteen honorary doctorates (including Oxford, Cambridge, the Sorbonne, and Harvard) Tony Award in 1950 for Best Play: The Broadway production of The Cocktail Party Two posthumous Tony Awards (1983) for his poems used in the musical Cats Eliot College of the University of Kent, England, named after him Celebrated on commemorative postage stamps A star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame T. S. Eliot Prize- given to the top piece of poetry every year.

The Journey of the Magi "A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The was 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.

Poem contd. Then the camel men cursing and grumbling And running away, and wanting their liquor and women, And the night-fires gong 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.

Poem contd. 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.

Poem contd. All this was a long time ago, I remember, And I would do it again, but set down This set down This: were we lead all that way for Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly, We had evidence and no doubt. I have 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.

Analysis The poem is about awareness and rebirth, and the pain that often comes with learning and new awareness. The magus narrator is lamenting the spiritual awakening that the birth of Jesus brought upon him; his old life and luxuries and indulgences are lost to him forever and the old way of life is dead. He cannot continue with his old beliefs, and it is for this that he wishes for his own death. The birth of Jesus was for him a rupture between the old and the new, and once having known the new, he cannot stay with the old, either in his beliefs or habits.

Poetic techniques The poem is written in free-verse. Techniques Allusion –the story is in reference to the gospels. Alliteration- ‘Sleeping in snatches, With the voices singing in our ears, saying’ Anaphora-’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"

Poetic Techniques Contd. IV. Persona- character of the first-person narrator in verse or prose narratives invented for the author’s particular purposes Ex---"All this was a long time ago, I remember, And I would do it again, but set down" V. Synecdoche- character of the first-person narrator in verse or prose narratives invented for the author’s particular purposes Ex--- "Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver“

Critique of the poem The poem can be confusing to the average reader. Most people will read it and think that it is just a story, and not notice the actual meaning of it. Personally I do not like poetry, but this poem was pretty decent. If you want a good read with a religious meaning I recommend this for you.