A Study Guide for T. S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for T. S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Aug 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535826686

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Journey of the Magi

T. S. Eliot

1927

Introduction

T. S. Eliot is best known for his lengthy, complex poems such as Ash Wednesday and the Four Quartets. Many readers find these poems daunting, not only because of their length but because of their complex classical and literary references. For this reason, Journey of the Magi often provides an effective introduction to Eliot. It has only forty-three lines and is based on a familiar Tate, the visit of the Magi (the three Wise Men) to the infant Christ Child.

The poem is divided into three sections. In the first, the speaker, one of the Magi who is looking back on the event after many years, recalls the numerous difficulties of the caravan journey. The second describes their arrival in Bethlehem, noting that what they found was satisfactory. In the final section, the speaker ponders the meaning and importance of that particular birth.

Journey of the Magi is the first of several poems that Eliot wrote for his publishers, Faber and Gwyer, for inclusion in a series of one-shilling Christmas greeting cards. It was the eighth in the series, which included works by other famous poets, such as Thomas Hardy, Walter de la Mare, and Siegfried Sassoon. Eliot liked Faber’s title, Ariel Poems, and kept it for his works that had been commissioned for the series, both because he could think of no better name and because no one else seemed to have a use for the title.

Journey of the Magi can be read and appreciated on many levels. While it is accessible to a casual reader, critics have discovered several literary sources that enrich the meaning of the poem. The imagery, while again understandable on a surface level, may be explored to find multiple themes. Finally, since the poem was written in