Edgar Allan Poe

 

THE POETRY OF EDGAR ALLAN POE

THE CONQUERER WORM


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.

 

 

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Edgar Allan Poe

LISTED ALPHABETICALLY

A

Al Aaraaf
Alone
Annabel Lee

B

The Bells
Bridal Ballad

C

The City in the Sea
The Coliseum
"The Conqueror Worm" (From Ligeia)

D

A Dream
Dreamland
Dreams
Dream Within a Dream

E

Eldorado
Elizabeth
An Enigma
Eulalie
Evening Star

F

Fairyland
For Annie

H

"The Happiest Day"
The Haunted Palace
Hymn
Hymn to Aristogeiton and Harmodius

I

Imitation
"In Youth I Have Known One"
Israfel
"In the Greenest of Our Valleys"(From The Fall of the House of Usher)

L

The Lake
Lenore

R

The Raven
Romance

S

"Sancta Maria!"(From Morella)
Serenade
Silence
The Sleeper
Sonnet - To Science
Song
Spirits of the Dead
Stanzas

T

Tamerlane
To ...
To ...
To F...
F...s. S. O...d
To M...
To Marie Louise (Shew)
To M. L. S.
To my Mother
To Helen
To Helen
To One Departed
To One in Paradise
To the River
To Zante

U

Ulalume

V

A Valentine
The Valley of Unrest