The Journey Of The Magi

by T S Eliot
'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.'
These lines are a quote from a 1622 nativity sermon by Lancelot Andrewes, an English
bishop and scholar and contributor to the King James translation of the Bible. These lines set
the reader up for the crux of the poem: the Magis trek to Bethlehem, where Jesus is about to
be born.
The quote itself is an anachronism as the Magi is talking about something which he could not
possibly know would be read. This allows for the presence of narration to occur throughout
the text.

There were times we regretted

The summer palaces on slopes,
This can be interpreted in two ways.
1) They regret their lavish lifestyle because theyve turned soft and cant handle this
important trek. They wish they were more prepared.

OR
2) They simply miss their lavish lifestyle. Regret can also just imply a feeling of sadness or
longing about something, so maybe theyre just wishing they were back at their summer
palaces on slopes.
Can you blame them?

And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Sherbet is an American spelling and variation of sorbet.
Note that sherbet in the UK is a fizzy, sweet powder used in confectionery and drinks.
Ultimately the name comes from the Arabic sharbat, a cool effervescent or iced fruit drink.
And no, it wasnt around in the year 0.
This is another example of anachronism, which we first saw with the quote from the sermon
in the first lines.

The references to the women along with the sherbet are some of the temptations that the magi
are leaving behind to convert to Christianity.

And the night-fires going out,

It is so cold at night that the fires are going out. The reason the Magi are out in the open is
because there may have been no room at the local inn. This is a reference to Mary and Jesus
as Jesus was born in a manger because Joseph and Mary were turned away from every inn in
Bethlehem.
Journey of the Magi: Stanza 1 Summary
Summary of Stanza 1 of the poem Journey of the Magi. Line-by-line analysis.

A hard time we had of it.

Referencing back to the first line. The narrator is reiterating that the journey is uncomfortable.

At the end we preferred to travel all night,

Sleeping in snatches,
The magi arent enjoying this journey at all. Theyre tired and miserable, but theyd rather
just keep moving to get through it.
Reading this as a conversion poem, these lines show the difficulty of having your beliefs cast
into doubt. These magi are leaders under the pagan beliefs, and suddenly theyre converting
to Christianity, where the leader is this newborn.
They just want to get it over with.

With the voices singing in our ears, saying

That this was all folly.
The magi represent the pagan religion in fact, theyre head figures under the old religion.
So you can imagine their skepticism about this change.
Theyre following a star?
Yet they continue.
You can also interpret this as a reluctant conversion to Christianity. It does indeed take a
level of faith to believe in this religion, and along the way this convert is sure to have some
doubts.

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,

Hold up.
A temperate valley? With camels and snow and the desert? I dont think so.
These lines show us how distinct from the actual story this narration is. The speaker seems to
be altering things to make the story more literary, more symbolic.

And three trees on the low sky,

The single image of the three trees implies the crucifixion of Jesus with the two criminals beside him.

And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.

With Eliot, sometimes its best not to read things allegorically.
This horse probably isnt a precise symbol, but rather a couple of associations. The old, white
horse is probably associated with God, in his white purity, age and power.
But horses are also infamous in the Bible as the four horses of the apocalypse, who come to
cleanse the Earth.
And since the horse is galloping away, maybe were going to encounter the horse later

Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the

Where the lintel would by Jewish tradition be splashed with the blood of lamb on Passover
clearly displayed so that God would know to exempt such people from the plaguethese
people have allowed the lintel to be covered by vine. These people have forgotten their
religious traditions, as they no longer keep the lintel to commemorate one of the plagues
which freed their people from the Egyptians, furthering the speakers disillusionment with
his/their journey, that this was all folly.
(see the note for lintel for more information)
lintel,
lintel alludes to the story of Passover from Exodus 12, in which God instructed the Israelites
to splash blood over their doors (on the lintel) to protect their first born children.

But there was no information, and so we continued

Belief in the Christian God can be extremely comforting, even making winter deserts seem
like temperate valleys.
Yet the magi cant find any information here.
Theyre searching for answers to questions about this religion, but cant find any. But theyre
still going to continue on this journey.

And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon

Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.
Jesus' palace, a manger, was satisfactory compared to the summer palaces on slopes that the
magi were used to.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
The narrative shifts again.
In one sense, we can imagine this magus as an older man, remembering what he did in his
past.
In another sense, we know the narrator transcends time (since he knows things that happened
over 1000 years later, like the sermon). So all this happened a long time ago from our
perspective reading today as well.
but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death?
set down this means write this down.
This is an allusion to Othello, when he says:
Soft you; a word or two before you go.
I have done the state some service, and they knowt.
No more of that. I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak
Of one that loved not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but being wrought
Perplexd in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes,
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their medicinal gum. Set you down this;
(There are some notes on this allusion here)

Othello wanted to make sure he wasnt remembered as an evil person, but as an unfortunate
result of his circumstances.
Similarly, the speaker wants to be remembered in a specific way. He doesnt want people to
think that there was an epiphany or that he was sure about this conversion. He was confused
and insecure.
But Eliot doesnt leave us with an ambiguous question. He clarifies in the next lines.

There was a Birth, certainly

We had evidence and no doubt.
Here hes talking about the birth of Jesus.
Notice how he says he had evidence and no doubt in this stanza, which shows the completion
of his conversion.
In the first stanza, he was still struggling,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
But the completion of his conversion doesnt mean that hes happy

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 magi were religious leaders before Christ came along.
But by converting to Christianity, they gave up their positions and recognized Christs
importance. Thus, they died in a way because their time was over.

Notice the capitalization in this passage. At first, the magus says I have seen birth and death.
Then, he refers to this Birth, which implies that the capitalization refers to Christs birth,
while the lower case birth refers to birth in general.
Finally, he compares the magis Hard and bitter agony to Death. And since Death is
capitalized, we can infer that it refers to Christs death on the cross.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

The speaker goes back to the narrative, describing what happened after they saw Christs
birth.

But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.
But going home is strange for them now.
In the first stanza they missed
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
But they cant seem to enjoy it quite like they used to.
A dispensation, in Christian theology, is like a time period. So the old dispensation is their
old religion.
The people are alien because theyre part of a completely different belief system now.

I should be glad of another death.

This short sentence ends the poem with a surprising punch, and it can be interpreted in a
couple of ways.
First (and most coherent)

The magus seems to be wishing for his own death. Hes been put through bitter agony, and
this conversion has left him miserable in his own home. But he cant just switch back to the
old religion, because he had evidence and no doubt that Christ was born.
Second
The magus could be saying that he is hoping for another conversion. Maybe he wants
another death in that he wants his Christian beliefs to die and let him go back to his old
religion.

Or possibly he wants someone else to experience the same death and be converted like he
was.