Journey | Magi Poem/ Poetry -- Thomas Stern Eliot
Journey Of The Magi
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 arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was ( you may 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 place, 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.