Tuesday, January 17, 2012

"Eldorado" Edgar Allan Poe

El Dorado is a mystical lost city of gold that Spanish conquistadors, pirates, and later men across the world have been in search for to no avail. The ideals of El Dorado is what the similarly titled poem, "Eldorado" by Edgar Allan Poe, is about. In the first stanza, the "gallant knight" was joyfully searching for Eldorado (Poe 2). At this point in the poem, the reader only knows that Eldorado is something that is worth questing for. In the next stanza the reader learns that the knight has been searching for Eldorado for many years, but without success as the "knight grew old" (Poe 7). Also in this stanza the reader learns that Eldorado is some sort of geographical location as the knight could not find a "spot of ground" that looked like Eldorado (Poe 11). The third stanza helps the reader better understand what Eldorado is. By calling Eldorado a "land" that he can not find, the reader knows that Eldorado is the city that the knight is questing for. The third stanza also informs the reader that the knight is near death as his strength was falling him (Poe 14). Then he meets the pilgrim shadow, which literally represents fading image of explorers of the past who tries to aid the knight (Huff). "Eldorado" was written by Poe in the midst of the Gold Rush in 1849, so the pilgrim shadow also represents the American dream of becoming rich and well off. The pilgrim ghost was going to show the knight the way to riches and help the gallant fellow to a better life (Poe 19 - 24). The last stanza is the pilgrim shadow telling the knight where to find Eldorado (Poe 19). The description the pilgrim shadow gives leads the reader to believe that Eldorado is a fictional place, and can not be reached in life. "The Mountain over the Moon" is possible to get to in today's times as man as walked on the moon, but in 1849 the thought of ever going to the moon was ludicrous (Poe 19-20). When the pilgrim shadow tells the knight that he can only reach Eldorado by "boldly riding", the pilgrim shadow tells the aging knight that he can reach Eldorado in the next life, in the "Valley of the Shadow" (Poe 21-22).

If the pilgrim rider represented the American dream, then Eldorado represented the excess of greed that comes with wanting too much and not being happy with what one has (Huff). That aspect of the poem is what makes "Eldorado" a Dark Romanticism poem ("What is"). There was no happy ending where the hero accomplished his task with great moral character and everyone ends up happy. The gallant knight of "Eldorado" unsuccessfully searched for Eldorado until he grew old and his strength left him. That was not a happy ending. The knight was "bold" and "gay" with a joyful exuberance, but that did not help him accomplish his task (Poe 1, 8). The poem also deals with death, a common Poe Romanticism feature. The knight is on death's doorstep when the pilgrim shadow comes to him and basically tells him that his task was useless as he was not going to be able to get to Eldorado. The hero not finishing his quest, instead knowing that he won't be able to finish it in this life, is a quality of Dark Romanticism writing ("What is").


Huff, Randall. "'Eldorado'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "Eldorado." PoeStories.com. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

"What Is Dark Romanticism?" Obscure Wonders. 18 Aug. 2008. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

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