Question

I hail the superhuman journey of the magi or song or Byzantium or to bring the dead of life

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Answer 1

Answer:

Stanza 3

Thank you We sneak in

idioms Allah shmoop you may

Lines 32-36

All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again, but set down

This set down

This: were we led all that way for

Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,

The beginning of this stanza rockets us forward in time, or just suddenly wakes us up to the fact that this story is being told way after the actual journey took place, as if the narrator's sitting by a fire in his old age, mulling over the events.

Now, in the present, he notes that he "would do it again." So even through the hardship and the grumpy camels and the uncertainty, he views the journey as worthwhile in retrospect.

Oh, but here comes a "but," and he further emphasizes that the "but" clause is super important by telling us Shmoopers not once but twice to "set down this."

That's slightly old-fashioned language for "write this down."

Side note! The "set down this" bit is a subtle reference to Shakespeare's Othello. For more on this, be sure to swing on by our "Shout Outs" page.

Turns out, the Magus has an important question that's still bugging him: "were we led all the way for / Birth or Death?"

Answer 2

Answer:

Stanza 3

Thank you We sneak in

idioms Allah shmoop you may

Lines 32-36

All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again, but set down

This set down

This: were we led all that way for

Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,

The beginning of this stanza rockets us forward in time, or just suddenly wakes us up to the fact that this story is being told way after the actual journey took place, as if the narrator's sitting by a fire in his old age, mulling over the events.

Now, in the present, he notes that he "would do it again." So even through the hardship and the grumpy camels and the uncertainty, he views the journey as worthwhile in retrospect.

Oh, but here comes a "but," and he further emphasizes that the "but" clause is super important by telling us Shmoopers not once but twice to "set down this."

That's slightly old-fashioned language for "write this down."

Side note! The "set down this" bit is a subtle reference to Shakespeare's Othello. For more on this, be sure to swing on by our "Shout Outs" page.

Turns out, the Magus has an important question that's still bugging him: "were we led all the way for / Birth or Death?"