Allusions In The Sleeper

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“The Sleeper” uses Greek and Latin mythology to enhance the poem. This gives readers a tremendous level of insight on this poem. This helps readers perceive: how Irene had lived and died, what the griever is feeling, what the griever is trying to say and do, and grasp the underlying Greek and Latin lore. Because of the writing of Edgar Allan Poe, “The Sleeper” was written in dark romanticism and adds a supplementary twist to the mythologies. The first allusion comes in the first 8 lines as it speaks of virus lunare: I stand beneath the mystic moon. An opiate vapor, dewy, dim, Exhales from out her golden rim, And softly dripping, drop by drop, Virus lunare is from Latin. It is a drop that comes from the moon that is to be used in an incantation

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