"Journey of the Magi" is a 43-line poem written in 1927 by T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). It is one of five poems that Eliot contributed for a series of 38 pamphlets by several authors collectively titled the Ariel Poems and released by the British publishing house Faber and Gwyer (later Faber and Faber). Published in August 1927, "Journey of the Magi" was the eighth in the series and was accompanied by illustrations drawn by American-born avant garde artist

Edward McKnight Kauffer Edward McKnight Kauffer (14 December 1890 – 22 October 1954) was an American artist and graphic designer who lived for much of his life in the United Kingdom. He worked mainly in poster art, but was also active as a painter, book illustrator a ...

(1890–1954).Eliot, T(homas). S(tearns). "Journey of the Magi" (London: Faber & Gwyer, 1927). The poems, including "Journey of the Magi", were later published in both editions of Eliot's collected poems in 1936 and 1963.Eliot, T(homas). S(tearns). ''Collected Poems: 1909–1935''. (London: Faber & Faber; New York: Harcourt Brace, 1936); and ''Collected Poems: 1909–1962''. (London: Faber & Faber; New York: Harcourt Brace, 1963). In the previous year, Eliot had converted to

Anglo-Catholicism Anglo-Catholicism comprises beliefs and practices that emphasise the Catholic heritage and identity of the various Anglican churches. The term was coined in the early 19th century, although movements emphasising the Catholic nature of Anglican ...

and his poetry, starting with the ''Ariel Poems'' (1927–1931) and '' Ash Wednesday'' (1930), took on a decidedly religious character.Timmerman, John H. ''T. S. Eliot’s Ariel Poems: The Poetics of Recovery''. (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 1994), 117–123. In the poem, Eliot retells the story of the biblical Magi who travelled to Palestine to visit the newborn Jesus according to the

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and form ...

. It is a narrative, told from the point of view of one of the magi, that expresses themes of alienation and a feeling of powerlessness in a world that has changed. The poem's

dramatic monologue Dramatic monologue is a type of poetry written in the form of a speech of an individual character. M.H. Abrams notes the following three features of the ''dramatic monologue'' as it applies to poetry: Types of dramatic monologue One of the mo ...

incorporates quotations and literary

allusion Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...

s to works by earlier writers

Lancelot Andrewes Lancelot Andrewes (155525 September 1626) was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chi ...

and

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lit ...

Writing and publication

In 1925, Eliot became a poetry editor at the London publishing firm of Faber and Gwyer, Ltd.,Murphy, Russell Elliott. ''Critical Companion to T. S. Eliot: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work''. (New York: Facts on File/InfoBase Publishing, 2007). after a career in banking, and subsequent to the success of his earlier poems, including "

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", commonly known as "Prufrock", is the first professionally published poem by American-born British poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). Eliot began writing "Prufrock" in February 1910, and it was first publishe ...

" (1915), "

Gerontion "Gerontion" is a poem by T. S. Eliot that was first published in 1920 in ''Ara Vos Prec'' (his volume of collected poems published in London) and ''Poems'' (an almost identical collection published simultaneously in New York). Gallup, Donald ' ...

" (1920) and "

The Waste Land ''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...

" (1922). In these years, Eliot gravitated away from his Unitarian upbringing and began to embrace the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

. He was

baptised Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

into the Anglican faith on 29 June 1927 at

Finstock Finstock is a village and civil parish about south of Charlbury in Oxfordshire, England. The parish is bounded to the northeast by the River Evenlode, to the southeast partly by the course of Akeman Street Roman road, and on other sides by ...

, in Oxfordshire, and was

confirmed In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

the following day in the private chapel of

Thomas Banks Strong Thomas Banks Strong (24 October 1861 – 8 July 1944) was an English Anglican bishop and theologian. He served as Bishop of Ripon and Oxford. He was also Dean of Christ Church, Oxford and served as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University during ...

Bishop of Oxford The Bishop of Oxford is the diocesan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Oxford in the Province of Canterbury; his seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. The current bishop is Steven Croft, following the confirmation of his elect ...

.Gordon, Lyndell. ''T. S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life''. (London: Vintage, 1998). Eliot converted in private, but subsequently declared in his 1927 preface to a collection of essays titled ''For Lancelot Andrewes'' that he considered himself a classicist in literature, a royalist in politics, and an Anglo-Catholic in religion. When his

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

became known, it was "an understandable choice to those around him" given his intellectual convictions, and that "he could not have done anything less than seek what he regarded as the most ancient, most sacramental, and highest expression of the Christian faith that forms the indisputable basis for the culture and civilization of modern Europe". Eliot's conversion and his adherence to

informed and influenced his later poetry. Critical reviews of Eliot's poems shifted as well, with some critics asserting that Eliot's work suffered with the addition of Christian themes. One critic, Morton D. Zabel said that this "deprived his art of its once incomparable distinction in style and tone". Other critics thought Eliot's exploration of Christian themes was a positive development in his poetry, including Gordon Symes, who recognised it as "an evaluation of old age, an elucidation of its special grace, and an appreciation of its special function in the progress of the soul". In 1927, Eliot was asked by his employer,

Geoffrey Faber Sir Geoffrey Cust Faber (23 August 1889, Great Malvern – 31 March 1961) was a British academic, publisher, and poet. He was a nephew of the noted Catholic convert and hymn writer, Father Frederick William Faber, C.O., founder of the Brompton ...

, one of the partners in Faber & Gwyer, to write one poem each year for a series of illustrated pamphlets with holiday themes to be sent to the firm's clients and business acquaintances as Christmas greetings. This series, called the "Ariel Series", would release 38 pamphlets from a selection of English writers and poets from 1927 through 1931. The first poem that Eliot wrote, "Journey of the Magi", was released as the eighth in the series in August 1927. Eliot would follow with four more poems: "

A Song for Simeon "A Song for Simeon" is a 37-line poem written in 1928 by American-English poet T. S. Eliot (1888–1965). It is one of five poems that Eliot contributed to the '' Ariel Poems'' series of 38 pamphlets by several authors published by Fabe ...

" in August 1928, "Animula" in October 1929, "Marina" in September 1930, and "Triumphal March" in October 1931. Four of Eliot's five ''Ariel'' poems, including "Journey of the Magi", were accompanied by illustrations by American-born avant garde artist, E. McKnight Kauffer.Gallup, Donald. "A9a. The Journey of the Magi" in ''T. S. Eliot: A Bibliography''. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969), 34, passim. Faber & Gwyer, Ltd., printed the "Journey of the Magi" in a 7¼" × 4 ¾",

Octavo Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...

(8vo) pamphlet "line block in black with brown and grey; casing, thin card covered with yellow laid paper."Phillips, Robin
1927 Jzf8 limited edition
an
1927 Jzf8a ordinary edition
in
Oliver Simon at the Curwen Press: a bibliographic handlist of their book production from 1919 to 1955
'. (Plaistow: Curwen Press, 1963). Retrieved 12 November 2013. The font of the cover and poem text was "Imprint" created by Gerard Meynell & J. H. Mason in 1913 for the printing trade magazine '' The Imprint''. The poem was printed on two pages, accompanied a colour images by Kauffer, and included one page of advertisements. Faber & Gwyer contracted with the

Curwen Press The Curwen Press was founded by the Reverend John Curwen in 1863 to publish sheet music for the "tonic sol-fa" system. The Press was based in Plaistow, Newham, east London, England, where Curwen was a pastor from 1844. The Curwen Press is bes ...

in Plaistow to print 5,000 copies. There was a limited edition of 350 copies that was printed "on Zanders' hand-made paper". According to Gilmour, the edition was printed "in batches of eight."Gilmour, Pat. ''Artists at Curwen: A Celebration of the Gift of Artists' Prints from the Curwen Studio''. (London: Tate Gallery, 1977), 47. A yellow cover was used for Eliot's poem after Curwen's designer Paul Nash objected for its use in the seventh Ariel pamphlet, Siegfried Sassoon's "Nativity". In 1936, Faber & Faber, the successor firm to Faber & Gwyer, collected "Journey of the Magi" and three of the other poems under the heading "Ariel Poems" for an edition of Eliot's collected poems. ("Triumphal March" appears as Section 1 of "Coriolan" in the "Unfinished Poems" section.) When Faber released another series in 1954, Eliot included a sixth poem, "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees", illustrated by artist and poet David Jones, which was added to Faber's 1963 edition of his collected poems. Both editions of collected poems were published in the United States by

Harcourt, Brace & Company Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City a ...

. All six poems were published together as a separate publication for the first time by Faber & Faber in 2014. This publication included the original illustrations.

Interpretation and analysis

The poem is an account of the journey from the point of view of one of the

magi Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin '' magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius t ...

. It picks up Eliot's consistent theme of alienation and a feeling of powerlessness in a world that has changed. In this regard, with a speaker who laments outliving his world, the poem recalls Arnold's ''

Dover Beach "Dover Beach" is a lyric poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold. It was first published in 1867 in the collection ''New Poems''; however, surviving notes indicate its composition may have begun as early as 1849. The most likely date is 1851.Al ...

'', as well as a number of Eliot's own works. Instead of a celebration of the wonders of the journey, the poem is largely a complaint about a journey that was painful and tedious. It begins with five lines adapted from a passage in the "Nativity Sermon", preached by

, the Bishop of Winchester, before

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

on Christmas Day 1622. Andrewes' original text reads "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, ''in solsitio brumali'', the very dead of winter." Eliot changes the first person to the third person, and omits the Latin. This opening represents a recollection by the magus which sets off the reflections which follow. The speaker says that a voice was always whispering in their ears as they went that "this was all folly". The magus seems generally unimpressed by the infant, and yet realizes that the

Incarnation Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...

has changed everything. He asks, :". . . were we led all that way for :Birth or Death?" The birth of the

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

was the death of the world of

magic Magic or Magick most commonly refers to: * Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces * Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic * Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...

astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

, and paganism (cf

Colossians The Epistle to the Colossians is the twelfth book of the New Testament. It was written, according to the text, by Paul the Apostle and Timothy, and addressed to the church in Colossae, a small Phrygian city near Laodicea and approximately f ...

2:20). 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 poem maintains Eliot's long habit of using the

– a form he inherited and adapted from Robert Browning. The speaker of the poem is in agitation and speaks to the reader directly. His revelations are accidental and born out of his emotional distress. As with other works, Eliot chooses an elderly speaker – someone who is world-weary, reflective, and sad (cf. ''The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock'', ''Gerontion'', the

Tiresias In Greek mythology, Tiresias (; grc, Τειρεσίας, Teiresías) was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nym ...

narrator of ''The Waste Land'', and possibly the narrator of ''The Hollow Men''). His

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

in this poem is a witness to historical change who seeks to rise above his historical moment, a man who, despite material wealth and prestige, has lost his spiritual bearings. The poem has a number of symbolist elements, where an entire philosophical position is summed up by the manifestation of a single image. For example, the narrator says that on the journey they saw "three trees against a low sky"; the single image of the three trees implies the historical future (the

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...

) and the spiritual truth of the future (the skies lowered and heaven opened),

References

External links

Text of the poem and recording of Eliot reading the poem
{{DEFAULTSORT:Journey of the Magi Modernist poems Poetry by T. S. Eliot 1927 poems Cultural depictions of the Biblical Magi Christmas poems Faber and Faber books

Writing and publication

Interpretation and analysis

See also

References

External links