In "Journey of the Magi," Eliot continues his themes of alienation from one's peers and world. The poem is the story of the magi travelling to meet Jesus, told as a reminiscence by one of the now elderly magi. The poem was written by Eliot upon his conversion and acceptance into the Anglican Church, so it can also be taken as a description of his own spiritual journey.
The poem, a dramatic monologue, begins with the magi describing the journey across a hostile landscape among hostile peoples, "Just the worst time of the year for a journey...the weather sharp...the camel men cursing and grumbling and the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly." By depicting the journey as difficult and full of peril, Eliot describes his own journey. This part of the poem, though, sets up an anticipatory feeling for the end of the trip.
When the magi eventually come to the end of their journey, they come across a "temperate valley," a place of greenery and ample water, marking the transition to a comparative and symbolic paradise. The images of a running stream and a water mill bring to mind the symbology of water as nourishing and life-giving, also in some pagan mythology as a portal, in this case a portal between disbelief and belief, the hard journey to faith and the coming acceptance of that faith. Eliot gives us many symbols of Christian belief, like the three trees in the valley, reminiscent of the three crosses, one of which Jesus was hung upon. At the tavern vine-leaves are carved over the lintel, symbolizing growth, fertility, here possibly the fertility of the spiritual place the magi have come to. Also referenced are "six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver," reminding me of the gambling soldiers under Jesus's cross, and also of silver pieces that Judas received for his betrayal. The one I'm not sure of is the "old white horse (that) galloped away in the meadow. The old white horse could represent a pagan interpretaion of Pegasus, leaving the place where "modern" religion is to be born, further sanctifying the sylvan paradise the magi find themselves in.
It is in the last stanza that we see what the effect of this journey has been on the magi, and so also on Eliot. Though the magi witnessed the Birth of the Savior, and are changed by it spiritually, they question the event as a relationship between Birth and Death. The magi wonders at the purpose of their visit (as does Eliot), asking "were we led all that way for Birth or Death?" Stating that they were led implies destiny in their conversion, but while it has changed them spiritually, they are not fully ready to accept their new lives. Having witnessed the miraculous, they are disenchanted with their previous lives, with the material world and its charms, but still can not immerse themselves fully in the world of the divine. There has been death for them, because their spiritual birth killed their ability to live as pagans, and they return to their old worlds "no longer at ease...with an alien people...I should be glad of another death."
The elderly magi has nothing to do but wait for death because he no longer feels at home among his people.
I wonder if Eliot was ever able to reconcile his life with his faith and achieve some sense of peace from it. The poem is brilliant in its inclusion of subtle symbology and the use of the narrator, who I think shares a lot more than he means to, simply out of the anguish his experience has created in him.
The poem, a dramatic monologue, begins with the magi describing the journey across a hostile landscape among hostile peoples, "Just the worst time of the year for a journey...the weather sharp...the camel men cursing and grumbling and the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly." By depicting the journey as difficult and full of peril, Eliot describes his own journey. This part of the poem, though, sets up an anticipatory feeling for the end of the trip.
When the magi eventually come to the end of their journey, they come across a "temperate valley," a place of greenery and ample water, marking the transition to a comparative and symbolic paradise. The images of a running stream and a water mill bring to mind the symbology of water as nourishing and life-giving, also in some pagan mythology as a portal, in this case a portal between disbelief and belief, the hard journey to faith and the coming acceptance of that faith. Eliot gives us many symbols of Christian belief, like the three trees in the valley, reminiscent of the three crosses, one of which Jesus was hung upon. At the tavern vine-leaves are carved over the lintel, symbolizing growth, fertility, here possibly the fertility of the spiritual place the magi have come to. Also referenced are "six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver," reminding me of the gambling soldiers under Jesus's cross, and also of silver pieces that Judas received for his betrayal. The one I'm not sure of is the "old white horse (that) galloped away in the meadow. The old white horse could represent a pagan interpretaion of Pegasus, leaving the place where "modern" religion is to be born, further sanctifying the sylvan paradise the magi find themselves in.
It is in the last stanza that we see what the effect of this journey has been on the magi, and so also on Eliot. Though the magi witnessed the Birth of the Savior, and are changed by it spiritually, they question the event as a relationship between Birth and Death. The magi wonders at the purpose of their visit (as does Eliot), asking "were we led all that way for Birth or Death?" Stating that they were led implies destiny in their conversion, but while it has changed them spiritually, they are not fully ready to accept their new lives. Having witnessed the miraculous, they are disenchanted with their previous lives, with the material world and its charms, but still can not immerse themselves fully in the world of the divine. There has been death for them, because their spiritual birth killed their ability to live as pagans, and they return to their old worlds "no longer at ease...with an alien people...I should be glad of another death."
The elderly magi has nothing to do but wait for death because he no longer feels at home among his people.
I wonder if Eliot was ever able to reconcile his life with his faith and achieve some sense of peace from it. The poem is brilliant in its inclusion of subtle symbology and the use of the narrator, who I think shares a lot more than he means to, simply out of the anguish his experience has created in him.
posted by stevepeano at 2:30 PM
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