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Edgar Allan Poe - The City In The Sea

Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines and palaces and towers
(Time-eaten towers that tremble not!)
Resemble nothing that is ours.
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.

No rays from the holy heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently—
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free—
Up domes—up spires—up kingly halls—
Up fanes—up Babylon-like walls—
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers—
Up many and many a marvellous shrine
Whose wreathed friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.

Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.

There open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol's diamond eye—
Not the gaily-jewelled dead
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas!
Along that wilderness of glass—
No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea—
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less hideously serene.

But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave—there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide—
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven.
The waves have now a redder glow—
The hours are breathing faint and low—
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.

Added: on November 28th, 2005 at 7:41 PM | Viewed: 13009 times | Comments and analysis of The City In The Sea by Edgar Allan Poe Comments (13)


The City In The Sea - Comments and Information

Poet: Edgar Allan Poe
Poem: The City In The Sea
Year: Published/Written in 1831

Comment 13 of 13, added on February 16th, 2006 at 5:28 PM.

to me this poem has a good description of the lost continent of Atlantis, as explained by Plato of this heavenly island ruled by an advanced civilization the was visible above the sea about 1500 to 2000 years ago or more, sylvia browne explains the city is about to reappear in this century! and the it was ruled by a civilization from the galaxy Andromeda, with unthinkable technology that ended in the destruction of this land.. and this island is located in the atlantic ocean, stretching from north\south america to african coast.. there has been satellite pictures of this island city that collapsed beneath the sea thousands of years ago, hence the name "A City in the Sea", and lo! there is a stir, a movement on the wave..-Poe-try l0ver

true muzik from United States
Comment 12 of 13, added on January 18th, 2006 at 7:52 PM.

hello i am a poem noob you could say... haha, i am related to Edgar Alan Poe, i see the poe family at reuinions, any way we have a school report to do, and this was one of my favorite poems he has made. i read this and was like wow i can understand where hes comming from. i may have a long life ahead of me, but even at my age my worry is death, im not afraid of pain, or death, but of being forgotten, being known by my grandkids maybe, but then thats it i will be nothing, its hard to explain but it is my #1 fear of life, and this poem showed me that i am by far not the only one with this fear.

Gavin from United States
Comment 11 of 13, added on November 28th, 2005 at 7:41 PM.

Wow! there was just something about this poem. The wide vocabulary and the depth to "The City in the Sea" I've been working on analyzing this poem for about two weeks now and when I came across this web site with this poem I was befudled with and uncontainable joy. How ironic... right? Well the poem, as I see it defineatly represents the poets life.(In this case Edgar Allan Poe's gloomy depressed life.) In the first stanza, "the shrines, palaces and towers" represent the respectable graves "the good and bad, worst and best" may represent the remembered and unremembered of society and once they die, they all end in the gloom of a grave. We are all forgotten.

Julie from United Kingdom

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