First that all sorry for my pour Enlish I'm still learning... I'm a big fan of Poe but i found some difficults to interpretate the poem inside Ligeia (the one that starts: 'Lo! 'tis a gala night....') and almost all the metaphors that Poe uses (e.g. With its Phantom chased forever more, By a crowd that seize it not) I realized that it's about the human being and the fact that whathever he does in life he finish been eaten by the worm (at least that the worm is another metaphor for something deeper) but I would like that somebody explain me everyhing about this poem and other poem that it's inside The date o the appointment (I dont know the name of this tale in english in spanish was translated as "la cita" venezia). Thanks for all, I hope to get some smarts answers and opinions or web pages were I will find this information. And again sorry for my English gramar.

-- Anonymous, October 15, 2003

Answers

The Conqueror Worm(1843) was placed inside the tale "Ligeia" in 1845. The "play within a play" gives the theme of pointless struggle which even the strong will of the bnarrator's beloved cannot overcome. His attempt to help her return in dark rituals mirrors the darkness of the tragedy in the cosmic tragedy. The poem is made of five stanzas as a tragedy is made of five acts. The Phantom being chased is happiness. The poem deals with an enactment of the last days of mankind. Lonesome indeed. God is not there, only props and dark hidden powers. the angels are not a happy audience. But mankind is a sad tragedy that mortally must in the end only be worm food. "A Dream within a Dream" portrays this swallowing up of all things in time. The final result will be death while all the past is gone like any illusion. The angels observe. No human has survived to join them in heaven. No man can can win their immortality. The worm is death. Even the celestial theater is remote from God as the actors seem unawares of their surroundings or audience.

Poe darkens, horrifies, then interrupts the final close with a rushing fall of curtain that like "The City in the Sea" brings the observers to their feet. "Man" is but the plot and the protagonist, the hero surviving and absorbing is the worm.

You can possibly study all the particular images for more insights, but the general mood and idea is fairly powerful and plain. The story of Ligeia mirrors the gloom, the madness and the sinful crime that overcomes the narrator in his obsession. In the end he loses his object and himself and his will in his very success at opening a way for his dead first wife. His whole second marriage and home is an obcene mockery and ritualistic replay of the first for that purpose.

Substituting magic and human will for God is mad, doomed and pointless though great horror can be achieved. That is the message of the wiser poem that does not stop the narrator.

-- Anonymous, October 16, 2003

Thanks a lot; you've helped me to comprehend some things about the conqueror worm. Take care

-- Anonymous, October 16, 2003