The Conqueror Worm By Edgar Allan Poe

Lo! ‘t is a gala night Within the lonesome latter years! An throng, bewinged, bedight. angel  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 Wo!

That motley drama—oh, be sure       It shall not be forgot! With its Phantom chased for        By a crowd that seize it not, evermore 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! —with mortal pangs    It writhes!—it writhes! 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.

Key Words and phrases The Angel: In the poem the angels have come to look over the world. They are disappointed in what they find and weep. They are watching the lives of people and find that each person is dying. The angels cannot stop the people from dying. “And Horror the soul of the plot”: The angels have come to see the “play” that is life but they find that human life is riddled with despair. Poe lost many family members to death so it makes sense that in light of his wife’s illness he would see life as a dark miserable place.

Key words and phrases 2 It writhes!—it writhes! : This line upsets the rhythm of the poem in the way pain upsets the rhythm in life. Poe sat watching his family and wife die long painful deaths and his life never seemed to recover from that. In these lines the worm writhes coming up from the depths to end another life. The worm is the great equalizer coming up to turn the body back into dirt. The curtain, a funeral pall, The play that the angels came to see is transformed into a funeral. Life begins with a curtain rising and a single character on stage. Life ends with a curtain closing and body slipping into the ground alone.

Key words and phrases 3 The Conqueror Worm The hero of this poem is not the man but the worm. The worm comes up from the depths to end the treachery that has become the life of man, or maybe more correctly the life of Poe. While reading the poem you may think that the tragedy is death but it’s not the tragedy is life itself. In Poe’s world there is nothing more tragic than to live in a world where everyone he loves slowly dies around him. Poe loved his wife so much but he saw many people suffer from tuberculosis and he knew that death was the only relief.

Literary devices 1 Alliteration: Poe uses this several times throughout the poem to drive in descriptions. The only time the poem is upset by alliteration is in the “it writes! – It writhes” section. Poe may have done this to drive in the upset that is death. At this point the hero worm is now rising from the depths to end the human life. The great equalizer must live writhing in pain of what life is to complete it’s duty.

Literary devices 2 Allegory Throughout the poem Poe uses allegorical phrases. There is no play going on but Poe uses images like this to deepen the view of angels watching over people. The worm that saves man is described as writhing up from the depths. The whole poem is one long allegorical image.

Literary devices 3 Imagery This whole poem has incredibly strong imagery. Poe puts the reader into a theater where angels are watching over people. You can imagine the worm wiggling and struggling up from the Earth to finally put the body to peace. Poe makes images incredibly strong so you feel you are a part of what it happening. I felt like I was in that theter looking over a tragic life.

Intertextual connections 1

Intertextual connections 2 This also reminded me of Romeo and Juliet. If you read this poem as a love letter to all the people he has lost it’s quite beautiful. He knows they lived tortured lives due to illness and his has made their great equalizer the hero in his story. Poe is willing to say goodbye to the people he loves due to their tragedy in life and know they are in a better place. He also seems to have a craving for death himself for without those he loves he now seems to crave that great equalizer himself.

Intertextual connections 3 Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Follow You Into The Dark +Lyrics This song is about being willing to follow someone into death. Poe saw that life could be a miserable place and saw death as a type of relief. In this song death is a relief because it means they will never spend time a part. I think Poe would also see death as a journey away from the miseries and sufferings of life.

Contextual Information Poe’s early life His father left him early on and his mother died when he was three. Poe lived with a tobacco merchant and his wife the rest of his childhood. To pay for college Poe turned to gambling and ended up in debt. His first fiancé left him for another man. He later marries his young cousin Virginia who was a muse to much of Poe’s writing.

Contextual information Poe was living in extreme poverty around the time this poem was written. The financial crisis of 1837 left many people without jobs or money. The poem was published in 1843 In 1842 Poe’s wife came down with Tuberculosis. Poe’s mother, brother, and foster mother all died of tuberculosis. Poe later wrote many poems about his wife and it is said he loved her incredibly deeply. He is said to have cried at her grave every day for months after her death.

Questions 1 The first time I read this poem I was overwhelmed with the image of a man being buried alive and then being devoured by the Earth or the worm. In reading it again I saw the greater peace that is death I would like to go back in time and ask Poe what image he wanted in my head. Close your eyes and imagine the poem as a Shakespearian play with the audience as Angels. Imagine every moment as a tormented life and as the curtain is about to fall the man is finally put to rest. Is the death happy? Should we celebrate his release from pain or mourn the end of his life?

Questions 2 Was this poem about following his wife into death? I see this poem as a longing for release from suffering. Though at this time Poe had not suffered illness like that of his family he had to be witness to it. I can imagine that all of this pain would make Poe want to be rid of his nightmare. Watching his wife die must have been an incredibly burden and I can only imagine how much he would want to move on to be at peace with her. Also I have always wondered how he would feel about The Following…

Synthesis 1 Poe brings every image together to create a show. He uses allegory and imagery to pull you into a world of pain, his world. Poe didn’t lead a cheerful or happy life so he saw tragedy. The message I saw in this poem was that life no matter how tragic will be ended with death. Death is the great release. Poe had to spend his life watching loved ones die so it would make sense that he rationalized death was better than life.

Synthesis 2 Poe uses language to emphasize his point. The use of alliteration throughout the poem drives in the feelings of pain. Poe puts emphasis on words like writhe because it allows the reader to really see what is happening. The strength in the poem comes from the imagery but is driven in with the alliteration. Poe is one of my favorite poets because he is able to make pain and death sound beautiful through imagery and figurative language.

Synthesis 3 This is a show where the main character murders based on the idea that death is a release how Poe wrote. All the murders in season 1 revolve around Poe.