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T.S. Eliot's poem "Journey of the Magi" interprets the wisemens' trip to go see baby Jesus from a different perspective than most of us are used to hearing. The biblical version that is most popular doesn't seem to mention anything bad or difficult about the journey that they made. The wisemen had a lot going against them to make their traveling terrible. It was in the winter, they rode on smelly camels, and the …

…of the images evaporates under such interpretation, to be replaced by 'the Christian mystery'. The primary sensory associations give way to an idea, and we find we are involved in a meaning beyond the Magi's actual experience. It is the same in the final paragraph, except that here we are confronted directly with the abstract idea. The Magus is baffled by the apparent contradictions of Birth and Death, and is left simple wanting to die.