It is thought that Eliot was inspired to write this piece after failing to find a certain stele, or ancient wooden slab with intricate ornamentation. ‘ La Figlia Che Piange’ describes a speaker’s attempt to craft the perfect, yet tragic, love story. After returning home, the speaker declares that he longs for a second death so that he will be able to join God. When they finally get to the manger it has no great presence but that doesn’t mean the experience wasn’t important. Every time they came to a town they were turned away. The weather was freezing and there was hardly any food or shelter. The poem begins with the speaker listing out all of the troubles he and his men faced on their way to the manger in which Christ was born. The first parts of the poem describe the journey to the manger and the later lines the impact that the meeting had on the men after they returned home. ‘Journey of the Magi’ describes the terrible conditions through which the Magi travelled to meet the Christ child after his birth. It is as though what occurred was of little interest to him aside from the technical details of the undertaker’s arrival and the care that was taken for the dogs. The speaker describes his aunt’s home, her possessions, servants and animals but never once expresses an emotion over her death. By the end he moves away and considers their friendship and how he treated her during the period they knew one another.Ī lesser-known poem on this list, ‘Aunt Helen,’ is a sad look into a lonely old woman’s death. It appears that the young man never really appreciates his own youth as he should. The two spend time together and woman worries about her age, while envying the young man his. At its root it is the story of a friendship between a man and an older woman.

Like a few of Eliot’s other popular poems, this one focuses on high society and the intrinsic absurdity of its customs. The title refers to the Henry James novel of the same name, published in 1878. This poem was one of many published in Prufrock and Other Observations in 1917.

Selected poems by ts eliot