"The Mill" v "Journey of the Magi"

Edwin Arlington Robinson’s, “The Mill”, and T.S. Eliot’s, “Journey of the Magi” are two pieces that share some of the same poetic elements. “The Mill” is a poem with a rather dark theme. The poem is about a mill worker that loses his job and commits suicide. Eventually his wife also commits suicide from this event. This is the literal theme of the poem, however, the underlying theme may be about the hardships of workers around the time of the depression. “The Mill” is a rather short poem with twenty four lines with two line breaks after the eighth and sixteenth lines. The use of imagery is seen, although, not abundant. “Journey of the Magi” is piece that is about the baptism of the author; T.S. Eliot. The poem describes the “journey” from Eliot’s agnosticism to his baptism. This poem is forty three lines, with line breaks after the twentieth and thirty first lines. These two poems are dissimilar with respect to the way that the authors used line breaks to structure the poems. The use of imagery is also used in both pieces of writing to help further their meanings, although this is seen more in “Journey of the Magi”. The themes however, are quite unrelated and have two very dissimilar tones.

The uses of line breaks in these two poems are quite dissimilar with respect to the authors’ intentions. In “The Mill”, Robinson uses two line breaks. These divide the ideas of the poem rather than showing the passing of time. He uses the two line breaks to give the reader a chance to construct the poem’s meanings into something imaginable. The first line break is used after the eighth line and is used to transition the readers mind from the description of the scene to the thoughts of the miller’s wife. The second line break is after the sixteenth line and moves the poem from the feelings of the wife to her eventual suicide. “Journey of the Magi” uses line breaks in a very different way. Eliot uses two line breaks to show the passing of time. This is seen very clearly after the twentieth and thirty first lines. The twentieth line is the end of the first time period and is followed by the line break. The twenty first line; “then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,” clearly shows the passing of time. Although this might not have been a literal passing of time is represents a different period in the author’s thoughts or mindset. The second line break in Eliot’s poem comes after the thirty first lines and is followed by “All this was a long time ago, I remember.” This line break may have been used to show a more literal passing of time although, still representing the authors past mindset. Though both authors use line breaks to structure their poems, they have two different purposes that can be seen when analyzing the writings.

The themes of Edwin Arlington Robinson’s, “The Mill”, and T.S. Eliot’s, “Journey of the Magi”, are quite different. “The Mill” is a very dark piece that describes a person’s retirement from the hardships of life. This poem is very serious and leaves the reader with a sense of helplessness, if not for themselves, at least the for the mill worker. There is not a clear message that the author is trying to convey but more of a story about the harsh reality of what people can go though. The piece does not make you think differently about a particular situation but rather, opens your eyes to a sad situation. Suicide is naturally a dark topic that is used in the writing and leaves the reader with something to think about that is not pondered on a daily basis. The nature of this poem brings the reader to having feelings of sadness and remorse, while at the same time describing a fact about the capabilities of man. “Journey of the Magi” is a much more inspirational piece that shows the thought process of a person that went from having no belief to someone of faith. The author did not intend to change the readers mind about the topic but rather to explain his journey and transformation to someone that has a belief. Early in the poem the author describes the challenges of someone that is in the process of gaining faith and the issues that one might encounter. It seems as thought the author himself is unsure about his own feelings. This can be seen as he describes the hardships and follies of his “journey”. It makes the reader wonder if the author was second guessing himself as well as his faith. When reading this poem you get a sense of uncertainty that is brought on by description of the troubles and vices than man faces. In this sense the two poems show minute amount similarity to each other. For the most part, the themes are very much unrelated.

The use of imagery can be seen in both pieces of writing but is much more distinguishable in “Journey of the Magi”. The use of imagery in “The Mill” can be seen when the author writes, “The miller’s wife had waited long, the tea was cold, the fire was dead, and their might yet be nothing wrong. Although this is a simple description it gives the reader a sense of loneliness that goes beyond the physical description of the scene. It brings feeling in the poem and brings the reader in so that they might better connect with the poem. Robinson also furthers the description of the plot when he writes, “sick with fear that had no form”. This helps the reader to better understand the actual feeling of the miller’s wife at the time. Eliot also uses imagery in “Journey of the Magi”. It seems a bit more abstract than Robinson but can be seen throughout the poem. When describing his journey to faith he writes “And a hard time we had of it”. This was in reference to the vices and hardships of agnosticism which were described in the previous lines, ten through fifteen. Rather than just listing the evils he describes the everyday situations that they can be found. This really brings the reader into the story as most people are involved in similar situations on a daily basis. The use of imagery in both of these poems can be seen with ease and really put the reader in the story. This is something that can be difficult to achieve with only a description of a scene or event. Even if the reader has not personally experienced either situation it is easy to image the scenario as well as relate to it.

Both Edwin Arlington Robinson’s, “The Mill”, and T.S. Eliot’s, “Journey of the Magi” share many of the same elements while at the same time retaining their individual components that make for great reads. While the themes are quite different the use of their poetic elements including the use of imagery and line breaks are similar. Both use imagery to help put the reader inside the story rather than seeing it only from the outside. This helps to connect the reader and allows the reader to get more understanding of what the author was saying. Both poems use of line breaks, while having different uses, allows the reader to put the story into perspective and better understand how the author wanted the poem to be interpreted. These poems are very different but also share some of the same elements that are used in poetry.