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Adoration of the Magi at Our Lady of Strasbourg Cathedral in France. (Photo by Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Things Worth Remembering: The Journey of the Three Wise Men

T.S. Eliot imagines the hard, cold trek of the Magi en route to the birth of Christ.

By Douglas Murray

December 24, 2023

Welcome back to Douglas Murray’s Sunday column, Things Worth Remembering, where he presents passages from great poets he has committed to memory—and explains why you should, too. To listen to Douglas read T.S. Eliot’s “The Journey of the Magi,” click below:

Everybody has their own Christmas traditions. One of mine is listening to Olivier Messiaen’s great organ cycle “La Nativité du Seigneur”—the cycle is dark and knotty in places, which makes the final explosion of joy even more astounding. The other is reading T.S. Eliot’s “The Journey of the Magi.” 

By now, readers may have noticed that I am something of a devotee of Eliot. That is not just because I regard him as the greatest poet of the last century, but because he has always meant so much to me personally.

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