Journey of the Magi
Curtis Jones
Mrs. Bacon
English 2326
8 March 2013
Poetry Analysis for the “Journey of the Magi' T.S. Eliot was born on September 26, 1888 in a small town in Massachusetts. He was the youngest of seven children. Eliot was educated at Smith's Academy in St. Louis and Milton Academy in Massachusetts. He later went to college at Harvard University where he became an editor for the Harvard Advocate which published many of his poems. This lead to his first publication, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” In 1925, he joined a publishing company which took over the publication of his magazine. After he graduated in 1910, he moved to Paris to study for the Sorbonne before finally returning to Harvard to continue graduate studies for philosophy. Later on, he traveled to Germany to study philosophy at Oxford. Years later, Eliot got writer's block from marital problems and illnesses and he thought he would never be able to write poetry again. He overcame his fears with great success after he was commissioned to write “The Journey of the Magi.” This poem was published in 1927 which was also the year Eliot converted to the Anglican church and became a British citizen. At the same time he was commission to write this poem, he was hard at work composing material that would later appear in his “Ash Wednesday” poem. Eliot continued to write poetry, plays, and criticisms and eventually won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948. In the “Journey of the Magi” Eliot describes the journey the wise men traveled by using symbolism, tone, structure, and figurative language to help the reader form a better picture in their head of what it is really like. Symbolism is found all throughout this poem. Eliot greatly admired a bishop named Lancelot Andrewes who gave a Christmas sermon in 1622 about the journey of the wise men. This sermon is what gave Eliot the idea to write the “Journey of the Magi.” Eliot adapted part of the sermon into the first five lines of his
Mrs. Bacon
English 2326
8 March 2013
Poetry Analysis for the “Journey of the Magi' T.S. Eliot was born on September 26, 1888 in a small town in Massachusetts. He was the youngest of seven children. Eliot was educated at Smith's Academy in St. Louis and Milton Academy in Massachusetts. He later went to college at Harvard University where he became an editor for the Harvard Advocate which published many of his poems. This lead to his first publication, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” In 1925, he joined a publishing company which took over the publication of his magazine. After he graduated in 1910, he moved to Paris to study for the Sorbonne before finally returning to Harvard to continue graduate studies for philosophy. Later on, he traveled to Germany to study philosophy at Oxford. Years later, Eliot got writer's block from marital problems and illnesses and he thought he would never be able to write poetry again. He overcame his fears with great success after he was commissioned to write “The Journey of the Magi.” This poem was published in 1927 which was also the year Eliot converted to the Anglican church and became a British citizen. At the same time he was commission to write this poem, he was hard at work composing material that would later appear in his “Ash Wednesday” poem. Eliot continued to write poetry, plays, and criticisms and eventually won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948. In the “Journey of the Magi” Eliot describes the journey the wise men traveled by using symbolism, tone, structure, and figurative language to help the reader form a better picture in their head of what it is really like. Symbolism is found all throughout this poem. Eliot greatly admired a bishop named Lancelot Andrewes who gave a Christmas sermon in 1622 about the journey of the wise men. This sermon is what gave Eliot the idea to write the “Journey of the Magi.” Eliot adapted part of the sermon into the first five lines of his