Tuesday, 12 October 2004: Edgar Allan Poe.  Introduction, 2387-89.  “Sonnet—To Science” 2457; “Romance” 2458; “The City in the Sea” 2461-2; “Annabel Lee” 2473-4.

Reader: Jennifer Baker

Poe, "The City in The Sea," p. 2461

Objective 2

To study the movement of “Romanticism” the narrative genre of romance and the related styles of the gothic and sublime. 

Poe uses traditional gothic elements in his writings for example, words and phrases such as,  “eternal rest”, “time eaten towers”, and “earthly moans”, while also using sublime elements such as, “hideously serene”. Typically the traditional European and American gothic writers provide their readers with a castle or forest setting. But in “City in the Sea” Poe chooses to use a more mysterious reflective setting, which opens our imaginations to a more mystical romanticism.

Lines 24-29

Resignedly beneath the sky

The melancholy waters lie

So blend the turrets and shadows there

That all seem pendulous in air,

While from a proud tower in the town

Death looks gigantically down.

 . . .  

Lines 42-end

But lo, a stir is in the air!

The wave- there is a movement there!

As if the towers had trust aside,

In slightly sinking, the dull tide

As if their tops had feebly given

A void within the filmy Heaven.

The waves have now a redder glow-

The hours are breathing faint and low-

And when, amid no earthly moans,

Down, down that town shall settle hence,

Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,

Shall do it reverence.

  * * *

Question: Is Poe describing death or the end of a day?