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

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!

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???

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.

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

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.