Emily Winslow Cox

ENGL 203

Regent University

Professor N. Geske

Eliot’s Magi: Beginnings and Endings

Eliot’s “Magi” poem is one which expresses the perspective of a traveler looking back on a unique journey – a journey he would remember for the rest of his life. It was a journey to a birth, a birth through which sinners could be reborn. And yet to love this light, one must first have the life that he himself has given. The magi in Eliot’s account is consistent with the story of someone whose heart is aware of the unique Savior who has come into the world – not only as a sight but as the Giver and sharer of sight.

 Arguably, the closing of Eliot’s tale foreshadows or rather reflects the light, the light that is to come, that has come, and that will come with glory to meet “the quick and to the dead”, to judge his enemies and to vindicate his people (The Apostle’s Creed). The ending of Eliot’s account forelights or foreprisms the future and is consistent with a storyteller who has an evaluation of some priority as greater than “the gods of the nations” – the God who made them and somehow was made known in a manger (Eliot). The heart that has a new and true God will continue to love and to seek him. Lady Mary Wortley Monatagu, evidently a fan of peaches, wrote something much like – “An apple is a very fine thing – until you have tried a peach (Montagu).” Likewise, but in a much greater way (one could argue, in a wholly different manner) the Magi may have been impressed with the things his neighbors worshipped before he had found The Treasure, the desire of the believing heart and strengthener of the weak hands, heart, and knees to do his will (KJv). The magi in Eliot’s tale reflected, that he was, 

“no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods” (Eliot). No longer implies a change. Also he described his own people as “alien people” – this is concordant with a feeling of being a stranger and a pilgrim, even after returning home from his journey (Eliot). These are words that could be spoken by a man who is always on pilgrimage so long as he is on earth. “I would be glad of another death,” 

he said, and indeed, for those in Christ they are “dead, and yet live” (esv, kjv, Eliot).

Retracing Eliot’s Magi account, the writing reflects a man who was familiar with Scripture and portrays a Magi who shares a perspective of the man seeking Christ with his heart, soul, strength, and the mind he was given. With these, the truly wise man pursues the gift giver. And yet, in C.S. Lewis’s words, “You would not have been calling to me, if I had not [first] been calling to you” (Lewis, esv, kjv). In the light of the Christ we see and enjoy light (kjv).

Works cited.

Eliot, Ts. The Journey of the Magi. https://poetryinvoice.ca/read/poems/journey-magi

King James Version.

C.S. Lewis. The Silver Chair. HarperCollins.

The Apostle’s Creed. The pca bookstore. 

English Standard Version. Good news publishers, Crossway Bibles, 2001.

Mantagu, Lady Mary Wortley. Celestial Seasonings Tea Box.

Blueletterbible. King James Version. https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/psa/36/9/s_514009

 https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/mat/16/16/s_945016, https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/psa/36/9/s_514009

 , accessed July 5 2025.