Maturing in Eldorado

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What does there have to do about maturing in the poem Eldorado by Edgar Allen Poe?

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Answers

The poem is a tale of a knight in quest of ElDorado. When young he is hopeful, exuberant, energetic, singing a song etc. After long disappointment he is doubtful, weary, looking inward, down, questioning. The advice of the shadow could be taunting, grim or deadly. He must keep on, now knowing the direction but not whether he can accomplish it. Boldness and striving internalizes the quest in his knightly character, whatever his success. Faust by Goethe has that kind of empassioned striving as a mature form of heroism beyond illusion or ideal and typifies Poe's own energetic but pained struggles in his own final years.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

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