Question

What are the literary devices found in "Journey of the Magi" by T. S. Eliot?

Accepted Answer

One literary device you might find in "Journey of the Magi" is allegory. At first, it seems like T. S. Eliot is portraying biblical times. Yet you could argue Eliot uses the Magi to address the alienation and apathy of modernity. Eliot's description of the towns and cities link to his other poems' disquieting depictions of the twentieth century. Another literary device is juxtaposition. Eliot's meditation on "Birth" and "Death" suggests that they're not so dissimilar.

Answer

One literary device that you might want to talk about in T. S. Eliot’s “Journey of the Magi” is allegory. Allegory is when a poem might have a second, alternate meaning. It’s almost as if the poem has two layers. There’s the first visible layer. Then, if you look close enough, you might spot another layer that’s not so overt.
As the title suggests, the poem, at first glance, appears to be about the arduous journey of the wise men (i.e., the Magi). These were the people who traveled to see the newborn Jesus.
Yet you could also read this poem as an allegory for modern life. Throughout the poem, Eliot espouses imagery that could be applied to contemporary society. As you might know, Eliot has a few famous poems about the alienation and apathy that he sees in the twentieth century. Those poems include “The Waste Land” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
In “Magi,” you see hints of the corruption and tumult of modern life when Eliot describes the cities as “hostile,” the towns as “unfriendly,” and the villages as “dirty and charging high prices.”
The end also might help you make a case that the poem is an allegory for more contemporary times. The “alien people clutching their gods” seems to reflect modernity’s growing secularism and disenchantment with traditional religion.
If you want to discuss a more straightforward literary device, you could bring up juxtaposition. This is when two opposite ideas or themes are placed almost side by side to spotlight their contrasts or, perhaps, to show that they’re not so different after all.
Eliot appears to deploy juxtaposition when he talks about “Birth” and “Death.” You might have noticed that Eliot describes both birth and death as “hard and bitter agony.” You could argue that Eliot uses juxtaposition to try and point out that birth and death have more in common than might be presumed.

Answer

T. S. Eliot's "The Journey of the Magi" is a narrative poem that uses outsider point of view to illuminate the well-known story of the nativity. The Biblical narrative does not consider the feelings of the Magi towards the journey; Eliot's poem foregrounds these and uses dramatic irony in that while the narrator does not understand the import of the allusions he makes—the "white horse," the "pieces of silver," the "vine skins"—we, the reader, understand these to be images related to Christ's crucifixion.
The semantic field of suffering that begins in the first stanza, then—"a long journey," "a hard time we had of it," "the very dead of winter," "sore-footed"—is extended and amplified towards the end of the poem, where Death comes to the fore. The narrator explains that "this birth was hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death," and the dramatic irony again is that the reader understands that Christ's purpose is not only incomplete without both his birth and death, but also that he symbolizes the death of "the old dispensation" of "alien people clutching their gods." The Magi, then, have journeyed to see a birth that will lead to the death of their own civilization, leaving the narrator "no longer at ease" and longing for "another death."

Answer

Eliot uses anaphora, or starting lines with the same word. This provides a rhythmic effect, as well as the sense of reciting a litany. We find this in the repeated use of the word "And" to begin lines, for example:

And the camel . . .
And running away . . .
And the night fires . . .

Anaphora is used too in the final stanza, though in a more muted way, in the repetition of the words "but" and "this."
However—and this is where it gets interesting—Eliot, the master of allusion, uses the anaphora technique allusively. Allusion is the literary device in which a poet points to another work of literature in his own text. In this Biblically-themed poem about the birth of Christ, the anaphora echoes the Bible, especially the Psalms, which are noted for their use of anaphora. Eliot also uses allusions to the Bible when he mentions, among other things, wineskins and three trees (referring to Jesus being one of three men hung together on crosses).
Eliot uses alliteration to build a rhythmic effect. Alliteration means beginning words with the same consonant within a line. Eliot does this in such lines as

The summer palaces on slopes . . .
The camel men cursing . . .

Vivid imagery helps bring the poem alive as well. Imagery is using the five senses to put the reader in a scene: Eliot writes in ways that allow us to see glimpses of what the narrator telling the story sees, such as "silken girls bringing sherbet" and "villages dirty."

Answer

Eliot utilizes several literary devices to convey his twist on the story of Christ's birth, and, as expected, most of them are religious symbols and allusions.
The first is expressed literally in the poem - the religious journey of the magi, or priest who is recounting his journey years beyond the time it occurred.  This flashback technique allows for retrospection and insight gained in the time since the event. Of course the journey motif is one of a reflection on one's life.  The magi is doing just that.
The imagery in the first section depicts the harshness of the journey, the cold, the animals' stubborness, and their guides desertion.  The journey, in the second stanza, becomes more pleasant, citing a "temperate valley," and a tranquil stream, both symbols of peace and harmony.
While here, we are given the picture of men gambling at a tavern, which alludes to the gamblers Christ drove out of the temple in the Bible and infers the need of a savior.  The darkness has turned to light;  they are in Bethlehem and find the infant.
However, years later, the magi is reflecting on this miraculous event.  Christ has already been crucified.  He was essentially born to die, making the magi wonder " were we lead all that way for Birth or Death?"  This question is universal?  All men are born; all men die.

T. S. Eliot

What are the literary devices found in "Journey of the Magi" by T. S. Eliot?

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