2 Body Paragraphs- Journey of the Magi

Journey of the Magi- T. S Eliot Two body paragraphs using PEEAL, including 2/3 good examples This poem, Journey of the magi by T. S Eliot explores the idea that a journey can involve obstacles and challenges. The magi are faced with difficulties, hardships and discomforts such as the hostility from the natural world and humans and sleep deprivation. In the first stanza the line “The ways deep and the weather sharp” an inverted syntax is used to put emphasis on the sufferings and difficulties of the journey.

Along with this line in the first stanza a list of complaints are written, “ 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 their shelters, and the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly/ and the villages dirty, and charging high prices. :” the use of listing in this stanza conveys to the reader the adversities faced by the animals, men and the magi. Listing creates a accumulative effect, causing the impact and feel of the complications to increase as the list goes on.

An assumption about journeys that can be made from this poem is also that physical journeys lead to personal growth or altered perspectives. The magi once they have witnessed the birth of Jesus cannot see anything in the same light anymore. The line in the last stanza “I should be glad of another death” suggests the persona almost looks forward to his eventual death now that he understands that there is life after death. It could also mean that the persona yearns for another renewal or another moment of new understanding. In the last stanza the line “but set down/This set down.

This:” is an enjambment that places emphasis on the new understanding that the magi have achieved. It is also a monosyllabic line, which arrests the pace of the poem and forces the reader to stop and pay attention to the message of the persona. A great example showing the change of perspective by the magi would be at the end of stanza 3, the word choice of “these kingdoms” and “alien” adds to the magi’s feelings of separation from the old world order and “palaces” in stanza 1 compared to the choice of words in stanza 3 “places” illustrates the idea of a new perception and outlook on life.