Please, I really need help on info. on the infamous "Eldorado" by Edgar Allan Poe. If there is any scholars or teachers that has any notes or critiques and can provide me with such useful information, I would be very grateful. Keep in mind, the date is 3/22/01 and I need my help by 3/23/01. Sorry for the procrastination, but it could not have been helped. Please reply A.S.A.P.! PLEASE RESPOND IMMEDIATLEY! Thank you!

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2001

Answers

One must analyze it by its four stanzas. The first describes a night, presumably in his youth, existing in a state of hope and vigor, looking for a dream.

The second depicts a man who, after a live time of searching for that which he desires and finding nothing, begins to lose hope of ever finding that which he seeks.

In the third, he inquires as to the whereabouts of this land that he has searched for in vain his whole life long, relentlessly searching.

In the fourth, the pilgrim shadow tells him that he may find his dream "Over the Mountain of the Moon and down the Valley of the Shadow," meaning that never in his life shall he find what it is he seeks. It may exists only as a dream, or it may only be found after death.

One will notice that this poem follows a certain pattern, so being called life. In the beginning, wishes of dreams and the passion for their pursual, than discouragement as nothing of his dream is found, followed by his meeting someone and questioning his wishes, and finally realizing that it simply does not exist without the confines of his imagination. It is the cycle of live of a sorrowful man. Perhaps Poe depicts himself.

Respectfully,

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2001