THE CONQUEROR WORM
EDGAR ALLAN POE
● It is a famous lyrical poem and was first
published in Graham’s Magazine in January
1843.
● The poem captures the arrival of inescapable
death and illustrates how our dreams and
hopes are eventually devoured when death
comes to conquer us
LYRIC POETRY
● Lyric poetry refers to a short poem, often with
songlike qualities, that expresses the speaker’s
personal emotions and feelings,
● Historically intended to be sung and
accompanied by a musical instrument (has
rhyme scheme)
STANZA 1
Lo! ’t is a gala night
Within the lonesome latter years!
An angel throng, bewinged, bedight
In veils, and drowned in tears,
Sit in a theatre, to see
A play of hopes and fears,
While the orchestra breathes fitfully
The music of the spheres.
GROUP 1
Describe the setting of the poem.
STANZA 2
Mimes, in the form of God on high,
Mutter and mumble low,
And hither and thither fly—
Mere puppets they, who come and go
At bidding of vast formless things
That shift the scenery to and fro,
Flapping from out their Condor wings
Invisible Wo!
GROUP 2
Describe the characters in this poem.
STANZA 3
That motley drama—oh, be sure
It shall not be forgot!
With its Phantom chased for evermore
By a crowd that seize it not,
Through a circle that ever returneth in
To the self-same spot,
And much of Madness, and more of Sin,
And Horror the soul of the plot.
GROUP 3
What three topics are the focus of the
play?
STANZA 4
But see, amid the mimic rout,
A crawling shape intrude!
A blood-red thing that writhes from out
The scenic solitude!
It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs
The mimes become its food,
And seraphs sob at vermin fangs
In human gore imbued.
GROUP 4
What happens to the mime?
STANZA 5
Out—out are the lights—out all!
And, over each quivering form,
The curtain, a funeral pall,
Comes down with the rush of a storm,
While the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm
That the play is the tragedy, “Man,”
And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.
GROUP 5
How do the angels react?
MAJOR THEMES
● Death
● Desire
● Mortality
The poem shows the struggle of mankind on
earth. They spend their life chasing their dreams,
but death puts an end on everything, and all their
desires vanish at the end of their life.