I am doing an essay on a comparison of "the valley of unrest" and "spirits of the dead" and i need to know what the theme is for both of those poems and i need to know very quickly.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2003

Answers

Both poems have to do with visiting a place in remembrance of the dead where an air of presence still lingers even in the silence and motionless landscape. That "haunting" of memories, misty, silent but restive is the mood that weighs upon the poet. Only in "The Spirits of the Dead" it is further applied to a "dead" relationship between Poe and his lost love, in the sense that you can never forget the love you left behind. See "The Assignation" and its poem for more on this slant..

Places. Though a dreamscape of faraway fantasy, "The valley..." is nonetheless the Scottish Hebrides that Poe visited as a schoolchild. (Perhaps mentioned in "Romance" and maybe a seminal source of young inspiration?)and the legend of the departed people, etc matches local legend. The second is more general, a cemetery, and a symbol for a poetic conceit.

Have to rush. If you need more, e-mail me.

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2003