What does the Shadow of the pilgrim in Edorado represent?greenspun.com : LUSENET : The Work of Edgar Allan Poe : One Thread |
The shadow of the pilgim really puzzles me, what could it possibly satand for?
-- Anonymous, January 23, 2003
The obvious answer may be the "Shadow of Death" from Psalm 23:4. The pilgrim image may be the stark, poor robes covering the features, the shade of a fellow wanderer who has passed through all before. In The Raven of course the shadow falls over the narrator, symbolizing the weight of the inescapable past. Here it is more ambiguous perhaps tinged with mockery, horror or a chilling kind of awe. Our hero is shaken and we do not hear his response to the exhortation to go on as he had started out, this time beyond the portals of life. The mountains of the moon are also by legend a waiting place for souls going to judgment.
-- Anonymous, January 24, 2003