Edgar Allan Poe

When I was reading about the life of Edgar Allan Poe I thought that I probably wouldn't like him if he lived today. He did't have a good reputation. Poe was addicted to alcohol - he drunk a lot. Because of this addiction he lost many opportunities, for example chances to find a stable job. Nevertheless, he was the first well-known American writer who decided to live off literature. He worked as an editor for many magazines and was known mainly as literary critic. It was certainly something really brave concerning the reality of XIX century literary criticism.  

Today we think about Edgar Allan Poe primarily as an author of gothic novels; frightening works full of death. He created also the first detective character in literature. Poe was an inspiration for many other writers, for example Arthur Conan Doyle. Not everyone knows that he did write also some poems. There's one of them:

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!’  

First of all, I really like the dynamics of this poem. Thanks to short lines, regular rhymes and constant rhythym I can feel that the persona is in motion, desperately wants to find the Eldorado. The shadows and darkness create a gloomy atmosphere. I understand this poem as a metaphore of life; we're spending it on a pursuit of Eldorado - a mythical place full of gold and other trasures. On the one hand, we can receive this work as a criticism of a stuggle for money and material goods. But on the other hand, this Eldorado could be anything. I arrived at a conlusion that the most important values in our lifes (it can be love, moral fibre, God...) are intangible. We cannot physically possess them. But when we have them all the time on the horizon, they show us the path. 

Based on: LINK and the Wikipedia note.