"The Journey of the Magi" by T.S. Eliot

[vudu8ball]

This is becoming a seasonal tradition for me. Thanks for your beatiful rendition. The poem is so visual it is a mental pleasure to hear.

[jacquesfresca]

How can you say this is about agnosticism? It's Christian.

[SanchoP14]

It is a fantastic poem, well-read:

"I should be glad of another death."

No idea of this line but it is truly a journey for both listener and writer,

A hard coming we had of it...and the absence of joy at the end suggests that TSE is not recount his journey to christ

[malma1]

Thank you. I really enjoy your work!

[dadasopher]

Beautiful reading, beautiful voice.

[Kletterator]

"T.S. Eliot, the American agnostic from the East Coast Ivy League intelligentia, moved to England and converted to the Anglican faith."

"But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, with an alien people clutching their gods. I should be glad of another death."

I should be glad to leave the sterile world of early 20th century East Coast intelligentsia, is what Eliot perhaps meant here.

[bondy034]

You know, eliot wrote this just after his conversion to Christianity so i'm not sure it makes sense to say its about agnosticism. And of course, we can't forget the narrator isn't him, but one of the pagan astrologers who visited Christ.

The connection to Eliot seems more likely to be a musing on who he was before becoming a Christian. Or perhaps its not even that personal, and merely the completion of a story left incomplete in the gospels... great reading nonetheless!

[Wolftrap44]

Good grief, do you have no understanding of Eliot? He was a Christian first and foremost, and the poem is about how once you meet Christ, you can never return to your old life. Agnosticism..what are you talking about???

[SpokenVerse]

I am talking about what he says at the end of this poem: that he is no longer as ease in his former life with people and their gods that now seem alien to him- and he wishes for death. There's nothing more definite than that.

He doesn't say that once you meet Christ you can never return to your former life - you said that.

I don't presume to understand Eliot, because he is at times abstruse, but I would avoid falling into the trap of interpreting his words as what I want to hear.

[JSC1401]

@Wolftrap44

And you, have you heard Eliot's rather monotonous and rather rapid delivery for this poem?

[xixioxaxe]

@Wolftrap44 I agree.

[SpokenVerse]

@Wolftrap44 The speaker isn't Eliot, it is a fictional account spoken by one of the Magi. At the time of the account there was no Christianity, no Sermon on The Mount, No Crucifixion and no Gospels.

Why is it necessary for me to point this out? And what have you got to get so upset about?

[Lovetolovelana]

Thanks for putting this on. I've been working on this at school, and I am really impressed with it.

[donpearson61]

I love this poem. Thanks for posting it.

Although I am an atheist, having had a Christian upbringing, I know the references far better than I do most of Eliot's work and I feel that I understand it.