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Comparing Poems | Yeats and Eliot’s Magi Poems

Writer's picture: MelMel

Updated: Jan 23

Poetic comparison is one of the mainstays of poetic literary analysis. Comparing poems allows you to see how they differ and mirror each other in terms of mood, themes, persona, and so on. 


When comparing poems, you should focus on the similarities and differences between them. This should not be a shallow process. Think of dividing it into a three-stage process:


  1. Observing superficial or surface similarities

  2. Discovering the major differences beneath those similarities

  3. Synthesizing a common meaning despite the differences between the two poems


In this article, I discuss how to carry out this process. I do so by comparing poems: 1. “The Journey of the Magi” by T. S. Eliot vs. “The Magi” by W. B. Yeats. Both poems on the surface are about the story of the three wise men who visited Jesus shortly after his birth.


However, they differ sharply. Eliot's poem describes the actual journey of discovering the Christ child and having their faith reassured, only for them to go home and wait anxiously for further reassurance. Yeats' poem describes a second journey after the death of Christ, as the faith discovered after the first journey has now been lost.


Although the two poems seem to part ways with each other in terms of theme, a closer look reveals how similar they are to each other in that regard. In fact, Yeats' poem, although written earlier, can be seen as a logical extension or continuation of where Eliot's poem stops.

The Magi Journeying by James Tissot, 1894.
The Magi Journeying by James Tissot, 1894.

Comparing two poems with similar subject

Comparing poems with similar subjects is somewhat easier as the subject provides you with a beginning point. However, it can be more challenging and interesting to compare poems where the similarities in the poem are less obvious. 


In our comparative analysis, we are going to look at two poems with quite similar subjects — T.S. Eliots’ “The Journey of the Magi” (1927) and W.B. Yeats’ “The Magi” (1914).  Both poems are about the journey made by the Magi or the the Three Wise Men, who visited Jesus shortly after his birth to bear witness and bestow gifts. 


Let’s look Yeats’ poem first, the shorter poem: 


Now as at all times I can see in the mind's eye,

In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones

Appear and disappear in the blue depths of the sky

With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,

And all their helms of silver hovering side by side, [5]

And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,

Being by Calvary's turbulence unsatisfied,

The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.


The poem is a single sentence and works well with perspective. It begins with making references to the “mind’s eye” before zooming on the persons of the Magi (In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones [Line 2]). It then expands to the epic landscape of the desert they travel through as described in the lines: “Appear and disappear in the blue depths of the sky” (Line 3). 


The perspective then shifts to the faces of the Magi, “their helms of silver,” and “the uncontrollable mystery of the bestial floor.” The poem is spoken from the poet's perspective. This differs from Eliot’s, which is spoken from the point of view of one of the Magi. 


Here is T.S. Eliot’s poem: 


'A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year

For a journey, and such a long journey:

The ways deep and the weather sharp,

The very dead of winter.'

And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,

Lying down in the melting snow.

There were times we regretted

The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

Then the camel men cursing and grumbling

and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,

And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,

And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

And the villages dirty and charging high prices:

A hard time we had of it.

At the end we preferred to travel all night,

Sleeping in snatches,

With the voices singing in our ears, saying

That this was all folly.


Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,

Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;

With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,

And three trees on the low sky,

And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.

Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,

Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,

And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.

But there was no information, and so we continued

And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon

Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.


All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again, but set down

This set down

This: were we led all that way for

Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly

We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,

But had thought they were different; this Birth was

Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

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

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.


The fact that the poem is written from the perspective of one of the Magi is significant. Eliot’s poem was inspired by his spiritual conversion to Roman Catholicism. Therefore, it can be seen as an expression of his own personal faith. To learn more about the role of Eliot's conversion in this poem, check out this article: Biblical Allusions in Literature.


He has inhabited the perspective of the Magi, and their newfound faith in the Christ child is now turned into a metaphor or symbol for his own conversion. 


The two poems on the surface have the same subject matter. However, they differ significantly in a few aspects. Yeats gives a vivid description of the journey using sparse words, such as “ancient faces like rain-beaten stones” (Line 4). Eliot gives a more vivid description of the journey and its difficulties. 


In the case of Eliot’s poem, we are transported into the journey with the Magi because of the details of the journey so vividly painted by the poet. This is so especially in the first stanza. The use of polysyndeton throughout the first stanza gives a sense of urgency and desperation to the difficulties that the magi encountered in their journey:


Then the camel men cursing and grumbling

And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,

And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,

And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

And the villages dirty and charging high prices:


In the case of Yeats’ poem, the difficulty is only touched upon in lines such as “Appear and disappear in the blue depths of the sky / With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones (Lines 3-4). This does not give a full idea of how difficult the journey was as in the case of Eliot.


In terms of form, Yeats’  poem is somewhat more formal. It is written in regular meter and rhyme. However, it still reads in a rather conversational style that matches that of T.S. Eliots’. 


One could even say that Eliot’s conversational tone is somewhat forced compared to the natural rhythms of Yeats’ poem. For example, the polysyndeton in the first Stanza of Eliot’s poem is slightly artificial. So despite the outward appearance of difference, the two poems both read in a natural and conversational tone. Yeats achieves this partially by ensuring that the whole poem is little more than a single sentence. This makes the poem resemble prose or rather free verse more than formal versified poetry. 

 

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The spiritual divide in the two poems

The poems are both deeply spiritual in terms of their themes. However, Eliot’s poem is direct and easy to understand. In the first stanza of “Journey of the Magi,” Eliot paints a vivid description of the physical difficulties of the journey to discover the Christ child. 


The second stanza describes the resolution or discovery of the Christ child and the newfound faith. However, is it really a resolution? The third stanza demonstrates the “unease” of practicing a new faith among old friends and acquaintances who are skeptical of this new faith. 


The poem does a good job of showing a group of men undergoing a physical journey that renders them alienated in a foreign land, only for them to come back home and become alienated from their fellow countrymen. 


Yeats’ poem is different. “The Magi” reflects on the second journey of the Magi. They have come again looking for a new Salvation or faith. The crucifixion of Christ at “Calvary” wasn’t enough to reassure the faith they discovered years ago when Christ was born. 


They are back again looking for a new faith and a new reason to believe. The journeys in both poems end anxiously. In Eliot’s poem, the anxiety is based on men of a newfound faith who feel alienated among former acquaintances who cling to their old religion.


Eliot ends the poem with the line "I should be glad of another death." The death in question is the very same crucifixion that the Magi in Yeats' poem are unsatisfied with. Presumably, this other death would lead to the whole world being converted to the new faith, with the persona of the poem feeling less alienated.


In the case of Yeats, the anxiety is less personal and more cosmic. The old Christian faith has failed. A new journey is desperately needed to save the world from what beast? We are not sure. But we get hints of it in the last line with the phrase “bestial floor.” Eliot’s anxiety remains personal whereas Yeats’ anxiety expands to include the fate of the whole world. 


Both poems however feature the continual renewal and loss of faith. The Magi in "Journey of the Magi" struggle with faith as they make their physical journey. Their faith is reassured after discovering the Christ child. Then again their faith wanes again as they return home to live among the "faithless."


In "The Magi" the wise men have witnessed the crucifixion that is being waited upon for in "Journey of the Magi" and are unsatisfied by it. This begs the question: Is human faith ever really guaranteed, or is it a perpetual journey of loss and renewal?

 

Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2025, January 18). Comparing Poems | Yeats and Eliot’s Magi Poems. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/comparing-poems


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