The City In The Sea By Edgar Allan Poe

681 Words2 Pages

Connor Cronin
Mr.Beskin
May 3rd 2014
Poem Analysis
The City Under the Sea
In every piece of literature Edgar Allan Poe has written, the reader can quickly pick up on his gothic style of writing. In his poem, “The City in the Sea” has not a realistic location but however a setting that quickly promotes a feel of mystery and loneliness. “The City in the Sea” was a revised version of his earlier poem,"The Doomed City", both in which give a feel of death and loneliness.

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19th 1809 in Boston. Both of his parents were traveling actors and they were dirt poor. Edgar’s father abandoned the family in 1811. When Poe was only 2, his mother died from consumption, leaving Poe an infant. A man named John Allan took Edgar into his home in Richmond, Virginia. John was a wealthy man. the Allan family moved to England where Poe went to an English private school In 1815. Then after 5 years of living in London the family returned to Virginia. While back in the U.S he suffered from gambling addiction. He gathered up so much debt that again his father left him. Once again Poe was dirt poor and barely had enough money to live on.On September 27th 1849, Edgar Allan Poe was found dead. His cause of death is still unknown but there are theories.

Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest (Poe, "The City").

From this quote, it shows how the rest of the poem was going to be dark and dim. At the time Poe had written this poem, he had already faced a lot of tragedy throughout his life. it was easy to see how the poem actually reflected a lot about Poe the troubles he faced in...

... middle of paper ...

... are commonly used in “The City” in order to really get a good image of the city and the land and water around it. On line 37, Poe says
“Along that wilderness of glass”
He is comapring the sea surface to glass because of how calm and melancholy it is.

The poem "The City in the Sea"is a very gothic poem. Poe also keeps the tone of the entire poem very dark and dim making the theme and setting spooky.. Because of the life that Poe had to overcome, the poem was easily related to it.. In the beginning of the poem, it was talking a lot like his childhood because he lived nicely and had a solid family and education. Everything was beautiful, just like the city.However, over time his life had seemed to become more worn down and rough just like the city. It is really amazing how Edgar Allan Poe relates his life to a poem but at the same time makes a poetic story about it.

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