What View Of Christmas Is Taken In TS Eliot's Poem "The Journey Of The Magi"�?

This poem begins by echoing the words of a 16th century sermon on the Magi, or three wise men, who according to tradition brought gifts to the infant Jesus. It concentrates on the physical difficulties of the journey: "A cold coming we had of it/ Just at the worst time of year." Eliot imagines the Magi as coming from a warmer climate, desperately missing their home comforts and "silken girls," following a star with little idea of what they may find.

The striking part of the poem is the part after they reach Bethlehem. The Nativity itself is flatly described: "It was (you may say) satisfactory." The Magi are now Christians, the first of all; but Eliot sees this not as joyful but terrifying. They make their way home, bewildered, to find "an alien people clutching their gods." Fundamentally changed, they no longer feel at home on earth; this may reflect Eliot's feelings about his own recent, and in many ways painful, conversion to Christianity.