"The Conqueror Worm" -Poe. Any thoughts?

[Stain]

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.

[hanzklein]

I think the poem is speaking about worms and how they...eat people after they die...which would happen to nearly every human in history. The quintessence of what the worms are is the inevitability of death via time, which is why they are referred to as invisible. Angels are immortal things watching the "play". The mention of the circle possibly represents the circle of life.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of Poe and this is the first time I read this poem.

[Dark Muse]

I believe that this poem is about the inevitable mortality of man kind, and those invisible forces which watch from above the fickle and fragile lives of man pass by. The dreams, hopes and tragedies which all come to the same eventual end.

It is about how men do like to make so much of themselves, and yet what are they but the puppets for the gods? And as great as man thinks he is, indeed it is the worm, what is looked down upon as a lowly insignificant life form which ultimately has the last laugh so to speak. Because it is to the worms which the fate of all men eventually lie, and in the end it is the worms which will devour them in their graves.

That which is as if invisible for so little notice it receives dwelling under ground, that which is beneath the notice of man, only has to bide its time and wait, for in the end it shall have its victory.

[Stain]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Poe was a religious man, or at least so his poems seem to indicate. Does God's angels, according to Poe, weep for mankind?


"An angel throng, bewinged, bedight
In veils, and drowned in tears...

...While the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm..."

[unionsport]

really nice post…Thanks for share…

[Dark Muse]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Poe was a religious man, or at least so his poems seem to indicate. Does God's angels, according to Poe, weep for mankind?


"An angel throng, bewinged, bedight
In veils, and drowned in tears...

...While the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm..."

The way in which it is referred to a "gala night" and the angels coming to sit down as if in a theatre to watch the play of mankind, to me suggests more of a mockery. I do not think it suggests here that they are genuinely weeping, but perhaps it is more akin to the way a person might cry at a tragic play.

They perhaps are not untouched by the sadness of the drama and yet for them it is such a small space of time, such an insignificant moment in the grand scope of things. It is a source of entertainment to them above all else, for they are kept at a distance from it.

Throughout the poem there is such language used which does give the whole thing this almost jestful feeling in part of the watching angels. The way he calls it a "motley drama" and the use of "mime" and "mimic" and "puppets."

This all negates a true feeling of somber sorrow and puts it all in the sphere of something trivial.

[inbetween]

I never know if poe really belives in angels or if he just uses religious pictures and beeings to illustrate that there might be something ... but perhaps he just likes the picture... the thing is, his stories are not so very religious and the way he lets the angels (seraphs) act and the names he calls them (I mean all this herachy ... muslims still use this herachy of angels but in europ it is not so very common and wasn't it at poes time in america...) that makes me think he rather uses the picture and all those angels represent rather powers he can not name...

but I like the poem itself.. one of my favourits
it sais in the end we're all dead and nothing matters anyways.. sometimes it chears me up because it indicades that we're all the same
and sometimes it depresses me because .. well... nothing matters anyways...
and of course poe got this wonderful melody of his... always a melody in his poems (that man knew how to use words)


(I do apologize for any gramma or spelling mistakes and perhaps for this vagueness that penetrates this post... I'm tired, hope it makes sense to you)