Eldorado

Eldorado

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old--
This knight so bold--
And o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow-
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be--
This land of Eldorado?"

"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied--
"If you seek for Eldorado!"

Eldorado was first published in 1849, and was one of Poe’s last poems. It details the journey of a knight in search of the fabled land of El Dorado, from his youth to death. He was not able to find any such land, and upon meeting a ‘pilgrim shadow’ was directed to the ‘Valley Of Shadow’, where he may find El Dorado.

The poem is very short consisting of only four stanzas.  Poe could be referring to the way people chase material wealth throughout their lives. And that even at the end of their strength, when they are dying, they do not give up their pursuit. He says that such wealth is not present in the mortal realm and the ‘pilgrim shadow’ which could be a ghost points the knight to the ‘Valley of Shadow’, or to the valley of death. He describes man as being materialistic and unable to escape his own worldliness which leads him to ignore the other aspects of life other than his search for wealth. The fact that the ghost knows the location of El Dorado further implies that such wealth is not possible for a human being to obtain.

El Dorado, was the mythical city supposedly said to be made completely out of gold. Poe’s inspiration for this poem could be the fact that it was during the California gold Rush of 1849. Through this poem Poe is describing the greed and hunger for wealth of mankind, so much so that they would give up their whole life in pursuit of it. 

The Conqueror Worm

The Conqueror Worm

Lo! 'tis a gala night
Within the lonesome latter years!
An angel throng, bewinged, bedight
In veils, and drowned in tears,
Sit in a theatre, to see
A play of hopes and fears,
While the orchestra breathes fitfully
The music of the spheres.

Mimes, in the form of God on high,
Mutter and mumble low,
And hither and thither fly-
Mere puppets they, who come and go
At bidding of vast formless things
That shift the scenery to and fro,
Flapping from out their Condor wings
Invisible Woe!

That motley drama- oh, be sure
It shall not be forgot!
With its Phantom chased for evermore,
By a crowd that seize it not,
Through a circle that ever returneth in
To the self-same spot,
And much of Madness, and more of Sin,
And Horror the soul of the plot.

But see, amid the mimic rout
A crawling shape intrude!
A blood-red thing that writhes from out
The scenic solitude!
It writhes!- it writhes!- with mortal pangs
The mimes become its food,
And seraphs sob at vermin fangs
In human gore imbued.

Out- out are the lights- out all!
And, over each quivering form,
The curtain, a funeral pall,
Comes down with the rush of a storm,
While the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm
That the play is the tragedy, 'Man,'
And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

The Conqueror Worm by Edgar Allan Poe, like many of his works, is a dark piece which talks about mortality and death. The poem begins with a somber mood, stating that the angels are drowned in tears. The whole poem is about the play that is being performed on stage. The plays actors are mimes or puppets and symbolize humanity. They are being led around and controlled by an invisible force. These could refer to the supernatural forces or to forces such as God or the angels. The forces seem to be able to get the mimes to do what they want, treating them as mere puppets. The puppets seem to be running in a circle, trying to find the puller of their strings, but they go nowhere, ending up in running in a circle that never comes back to the same spot, i.e they die. The Conqueror Worm then takes the stage and eats all the mimes. The angels weep and call it a tragedy, stating that the Worm is the hero of the play.

The play talks about the complete lack of control men have over their own existence. The supernatural forces control his actions and even when he tries to confront the person ‘pulling the strings’ he isn’t able to, and dies trying. Even his death is not in his own hands as the Conqueror Worm comes and devours everything when it is hungry, stating that death could come at anytime, and that no one will be able to escape it. The poem state’s that mans existence is full of sin and madness and that fear is the base element always present. 

A Dream Within A Dream

A Dream Within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream? 

Edgar Allan Poe’s poem ‘A Dream Within a Dream’, was published on March 31^st 1849, just before his first short story got published.  The poem is fairly short, consisting only of 24 lines divided among 2 stanzas.  The poem debates between reality and fantasy, and whether we can’t distinguish between the two. The first and second stanza’s depict two very different scenes. In the first the narrator is kissing the brow of his love, and bidding her farewell. He is calm but sad and solemn, the entire scene depicting a sense of mortality for their love. The second stanza shows the narrator on the sea shore, holding a handful of sand. He says that the sand starts to slip away between his fingers and that he is unable to stop and hold onto a single grain. This stanza seems to be much more emphatic with phrases such as ‘Oh god!’ and ‘-while I weep’ adding to the dramatic effect of there being a sense of urgency and despair.

The whole poem is about the mortality of things and how nothing ever lasts. The first stanza depicts a love that has weakened and dwindled. The second refers to the passage of time. The sand very easily can be interpreted as the sands of time in the hourglass of life, and how easily they slip through our hands. We are never able to get a hold, to keep some for ourselves. Death is depicted by the surf that wears away the shore and takes away the grains of sand as they fall, never to be returned or seen again. He calls the waves ‘pitiless’ and the shore to be ‘surf-tormented’, referring to how loss and the agents which take things of value away from us always seem to be merciless and unforgiving.

The title seems to portray that the narrator is morphing a normal imagination, or a daydream, and forms two levels of reality, showing that there is a great detachment from the present. Time is the major focus of the poem, and plays a powerful force in conveying the sense of mortality that Poe is trying to instill.

Style of Writing

Being born in 1809, Poe was heavily influenced by the Romantic Movement which occurred in the 18^th and 19^th century. His works often talked about death and love, often merging the two to make tragedies. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth were the initiators of the movement in England. It was retaliation to the Industrial Revolution and Age of Enlightenment and was against the scientific rationalization of nature, instead focusing on the feelings and the imagination of man to come up with ideas. Poe wrote mainly about the supernatural and occult, death and afterlife or a surreal existence being the main themes of many of his works. Poe was also the first ever American author to try to make a living and was affected by the lack of there being any copyright law in place. Due to this, many works were plagiarized and hence, writing could not be depended on as a sole source f income. Despite this, after the publication and success of his poem ‘The Raven’, Poe’s name became bonded with the literary works of that time.

Poe’s writing style often included the macabre and dark themes, and a lot of his genre was of Gothic taste. Dark romanticism and satires and hoaxes were also a great part of his work. He is the first American writer to be credited for inventing the genre of detective fiction. There is a large amount of irony and extravagance in his comedic works. Poe also played a major role in the developing genre of science fiction. His writing appealed to the masses and therefore wrote about many items included in pseudoscience. Horror was also a major genre Poe contributed to in his time. 

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19^th 1809, to David and Elizabeth Poe. He was an acclaimed author, poet, editor and literary critic, and he was part of peak era of the American Romantic Movement in the 1800’s.  His genre’s were generally mystery and macabre and was credited with inventing the genre of detective fiction. He is also said to have had many influences on science fiction, which was just emerging at that time. He has written several short stories, such as ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ and ‘The Balloon Hoax’, and one of his most famous poems ‘The Raven’, which gave a huge boost to his career due to its success.

Poe’s mother, Elizabeth, died when he was at the age of two after separating from his father. His brother was taken in by his grandparents and his sister by another foster family, and Poe himself was taken in by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan, though they never officially adopted him.

Poe went to England when he was 6 and studied there for five years, within that time learning French and Latin. He came back to America and later joined the University of Virginia, but he left after a semester due to lack of money.

He joined the Army when he was 18 and attained the rank of Sergeant Major, but later failed as a cadet at West Point. He parted ways with the Allans, and in 1835, married his cousin Virginia Clemm.

Poe’s publishing career began very meagerly. He published and anonymous collection of poems titled ‘Tamerlane and Other Poems’ in 1827, and didn't even use his name, rather crediting it to ‘a Bostonian’. His poem ‘The Raven’ published in 1845 gained him instant success, though his wife died two years after its publication due to tuberculosis. Poe even planned to publish his own journal ‘The Penn’ (later renamed to ‘The Stylus’), though he passed away before it could be produced.

Poe died on 7^th October, 1849, at the age of 40. The exact cause of his death is unknown but has variously been attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents. The Edgar Award is given by the Mystery Writers of America for distinguished works in the mystery genre.